New Patterns and Old Friends   01
by kalinda001
Summary: It is 6 months after GP. Avon has been 'enjoying' Federation hospitality, courtesy of Servalan. She has been trying to extract ORAC's location from him with little success. Vila is operating as a master thief under the alias of Gan Lason.
1. Chapter 1

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter One

The President and Supreme Empress of the Federated Worlds was vexed. The day was not starting out well. She was in her lavish presidential office, reviewing coded priority transmissions which had come in during the night.

News had come in from Sector Ten, and they confirmed earlier reports that the Federation's Second Great Expansion had hit some snags. The area was full of petty warlords with their own private armies. Months of manipulation, extortion and bribery by the Federation Military Psy-Ops Department had encouraged even greater animosity between the various groups and they had been at each other's throats. The Federation's plans to take over the sector were progressing according to schedule and the whole sector was ready to implode. Federation troops had been amassing conveniently in a nearby sector for training exercises, ready in case any "aid" was required.

But now reports said that that was no longer the case. In fact, there were troubling indications that the squabbling may have been an act. Instead of a disorganized rabble of small private armies, they had been organizing into a large coordinated fighting force. The head of P-O had already been demoted and Servalan had a meeting later with someone who might be able to salvage the mess.

But that was not enough. She needed someone to suffer.

Servalan sighed and brought up another report on her terminal.

Another planet immune to Pylene-50. This was becoming an increasing annoyance. The pacification drug which had worked so well in bringing two sectors in line appeared to no longer be working on several border planets. Rebels had somehow gotten hold of the antidote. The Federation thought they had derailed the insurgent's plans with the destruction of the Xenon summit conference and the stopping of the _Scorpio_ crew.

Servalan punched the computer button viciously. Another planet with the same problem, this was definitely putting her in a foul mood. She had several important meetings this afternoon and could not afford this frame of mind; she might do something unfortunate.

A diversion, that's what she needed. She absently toyed with a small control box on her desk. She knew the perfect one. Her pet. She hadn't played with him in several months. He would be the perfect diversion.

She contacted the duty officer at the Federation Special Detention Centre. A black-uniformed officer of the special interrogation division appeared on her screen; a man with a cruel face but a properly diffident tone.

"Yes, Madame President?"

"I want prisoner A5428 brought to the interrogation rooms in one hour."

The man hesitated then said, "He's just finished an interrogation cycle. He's in bad shape in the med unit now."

"Now! Sub-Lieutenant!" she was not taking no for an answer.

The man's face paled. "Yes, Ma'am. Immediately."

Before his last word was out, she turned the vidscreen off in dismissal and called for her pilot.

_Damn_. She would have to be careful, but she would not be denied her pleasures. The anticipation made her smile; the kind of smile that, if anyone had been in the room to observe it, would have sent a shiver up their spine.

* * *

The Sub-Lieutenant had been mistaken; the man was no longer in the med ward. He lay curled against the cold on a metal platform against the wall. The lighting panels overhead flooded the small cell with harsh light. He was dressed in prison grey coveralls, his feet were bare and his hands were shackled behind him.

He had just been brought back from the medical wing and dumped on the platform. A painful cough wracked his body and he spit out blood. The prisoner had lots of it now; the med unit was very efficient in replenishing all the blood that he had lost and healing any injuries and broken bones. They did everything but take away the pain.

Every movement hurt. Even breathing was painful from the ribs which had been broken repeatedly. Sleep these days was full of nightmares and ghosts, not helped by the drugs they always pumped him full of. He lapsed into unconsciousness.

* * *

"Get up prisoner A5428!" A barked command from a black-uniformed guard woke him, emphasized with a strike against his shoulder with the butt of a stun-rifle. Only stun guns were ever used by personnel tending to the prisoners. They did not want to risk any 'mishaps' which would result in the accidental death of a prisoner.

The prisoner moaned and moved away from the blow. It had only seemed like minutes since he fell asleep and he was still exhausted. Was it already time for the next session? Actually it had been less than an hour but he did not know that; time had no meaning in that place.

The guards knew he couldn't get up, not without help. He no longer had the strength or energy. And especially not with his hands shackled behind him. But it was a cruel game they played. "Get up!" another command and another blow. He remained where he was, ignoring them. From experience, he knew no matter what he did, the outcome would be the same. So why move.

Again: "Get..." The order was stopped by someone. Must have been one of the other guards. There were always three when they came to get him, two to carry him and the lead guard in front. It had been along time since he was able to walk on his own. Two of the guards roughly manhandled him to his feet and hauled him out, the head guard leading the way.

Corridor. Checkpoint. Another corridor. Checkpoint. It was all a painful blur. His head hung down as they dragged him along. He did not care where they were taking him. At the other end was always pain. He didn't care about anything anymore.

The corridors were cleared whenever this prisoner was moved. He was kept completely isolated from the other inmates. Except for the select group of interrogators, specialist technicians, guards and medtechs who worked on him, no one knew his identity.

* * *

Servalan was seated in interrogation room two. Opposite her was an inclined metal chair with arms. The room was bare except for the two chairs and a metal table. There was only one purpose for this room. There were no other distractions.

She could barely contain herself in anticipation. A medtech stood unobtrusively out of the way with his equipment. The President wore a white shapely gown; the height of fashion, like a well-dressed cobra.

The guards entered the room, brought the prisoner over to the metal chair, removed the shackles and strapped him in. The lead guard grabbed his hair and turned his face towards his torturer.

"Servalan!" The prisoner managed a weak exclamation when he registered the face of the woman who was the bane of his existence.

"My dear Avon." She gestured to the guards to leave. The medtech remained.

The old fight was there, much weaker now but still there. Good. It had been two months since she last visited him. The torturers had done their job well but he still hadn't broken. It was frustrating but part of her was also glad. A broken Avon would not be as much fun.

"You look terrible. What have they been doing to you?" It was not really a question. She was mocking him. It was a game, a reminder of another time, another place, another person and at the end, the ultimate failure. She had watched recordings of his previous time in this same detention centre, waiting for the man he thought had killed his lover. Finding out there was a heart beneath the icy exterior; she had been curious and angry at his love for the woman who had played him for the fool.

Her remark was the truth; he had a haggard, haunted look and several days' growth of beard. There were no marks of injury on his face but she knew that the same could not be said for his body. The torturers had been under orders not to mark him permanently or to cause any irreversible physical damage. The medtechs were good and very experienced at keeping people alive for more torture. Other than the fatigue, his face was cold and as unexpressive as ever.

He stared at her, not responding. She was toying with him as she always did when she had him brought before her. Gloating over him, goading him. He knew she enjoyed the sport, their verbal sparring. They were evenly matched and equally as dangerous and now he was in her power. Totally.

_No Servalan. I will not give you what you want at my expense. Not this sick game. Not for your amusement. _It was the only weapon he had left.

She stood up, a pain rod in her hand and circled around him as she talked.

"Do you know what they call you now? 'Avon the Betrayer'. It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Everyone knows what happened on Gauda Prime, at least our version of it." She paused and smiled. "_My_ version. I was very creative. Everyone believes you sold out Blake and the _Scorpio_ crew; it wasn't much of a stretch to plant rumors that you were well paid for their deaths and for betraying the rebel alliance. There are even rumours that you're helping us re-establish a new Central Control complex."

He quickly suppressed a flash of anger. She hadn't beaten him. He had defeated himself. His back hurt but his face remained impassive.

She continued, "After all, everyone knows Avon is only in it for himself."

She touched the rod to his jaw and drew it across his cheek. "We know each other too well and you made it so easy." She was almost purring.

Without warning she pressed the button on the rod. He arched and almost cried out as the pain shot through his body. Thirty long seconds then it stopped, she stepped back and looked down at him as he slumped in the chair, gasping for breath. That was only setting five of fifteen; she was already starting to feel better. She traced the rod across his chest. "Was that good for you?" Without warning, she depressed the button again. He tensed in pain, fighting with what little strength he had left.

She continued to alternately taunt him and apply the rod with increasing pain settings. He was already weak from his most recent bout of interrogations and had not been allowed enough time to recover. With the tenth application of the rod, he could feel himself almost slip into unconsciousness. She recognized it and slowed down, but continued to taunt him, giving him time to rest.

_One day Servalan. _He thought to himself. _But I am deceiving myself. She will never let me go. Not until I'm dead. _Servalan would not allow that, not yet. She could not give him the oblivion of a memory-wipe either, at least not until they had one key piece of information. He almost laughed. _ORAC. _Only he knew where that obnoxious computer was and it was in a very safe place.

Servalan's troops had confiscated the key, a small control box, from him when he had been shot and captured on Gauda Prime. But only he knew where he had hidden ORAC. Of all the information they were attempting to extract from him, the one which Servalan would never allow him to die without divulging, was the location of ORAC.

_What was that about Anna_? He had stopped paying attention to her rantings. All of his energy was concentrated on fighting the pain but she had said something about Anna.

Servalan noted that his eyes were tracking her now. Yes, that was still his weakness. The unfeeling computer, the man who had conquered emotion and replaced feeling with logic; brought low by a woman. Two women; Anna and herself. Servalan felt a twinge of jealousy at the dead woman. Avon had killed his lover by his own hands, but Anna's memory had still never let him go.

That day in the basement of the Presidential Residence when Servalan and Avon's positions were reversed, and she was the one imprisoned, even then he was the one who had failed. She had felt his pain as his world was torn apart when he confronted his lover and betrayer, and killed her. In a rare gesture of kindness Servalan had wanted to grant his wish to die, on her terms of course. But then the rebel Hob interrupted her and Avon escaped.

"You can't escape me now, " she told him as she drew the rod down his right arm affectionately and pressed the button again.

His breathing was labored between the applications of the pain. He was trying not to wince away when she brought the rod close.

Servalan stepped back and allowed the medtech to check over the prisoner. The heart was weak and erratic.

"His heart can stand four, maybe five more shocks then he will go into cardiac arrest." The medtech moved away so she could continue.

It was just a simple report; his heart stopping would not stop the torture session. They had all the tools prepared to bring him back from the dead and pump him full of drugs so their fun could continue. They had done it dozens of times in the past.

He did not know how long he had been there. Had it been weeks, months, years? Losing the sense of time increased the helplessness, they made sure of that. No visible time instruments; no frame of reference. The unrelentingly bright ceiling lights were always on in the prisoner areas. No natural light ever penetrated this complex. What little food they gave him was at unpredictable times.

He remembered back to those five days, years ago in these same interrogation cells, waiting for Shrinker; the one who, he thought had tortured his lover to death because she had refused to give him up. He had deliberately set himself up to be captured by the Federation in order to gain access to him, their most gifted torturer. Those five days had seemed like an eternity. The only thing he knew was that this time it really was.

"You won't leave us so soon, will you Avon? Not when we still have so much to talk about."

She applied a short touch with the rod and he gasped in response. She was enjoying herself immensely. Having her greatest enemy, the one she desired but could never really have, at her mercy was delicious. But there was one thing missing; she missed the fire of his barbs, that superior arrogance which both infuriated and attracted her. What would it take to bring that out? Except for the initial shock of blurting out her name he had remained silent.

She paused, listening to his breathing until it became less strained.

"We were well matched you and I, " she told him, emphasizing the "were".

_Like two psychopaths,_ he thought, not missing the past tense.

"Until you caught Blake's sickness and tried to become the crusader. It did not become you Avon and it did what you always thought Blake would do to you, it destroyed you."

_What are you up to now Servalan?_

"I am going to give you another chance, Avon. One chance. Join me. With your intellect and talents you could help me shape a new empire. You would be rewarded beyond anything you could imagine."

_I could imagine quite a lot. _He could almost hear Vila saying that. _Odd_. Why would that irritating thief come to mind now?

"You would be safe. No one would dare touch you as long as I was in power."

"No thanks, I prefer the torture, " he spoke finally in that low acid tone that was now barely above a whisper.

There it was, that old fire that wanted to make her slap him and yet excited her at the same time.

"Oh Avon, you misunderstand my intentions."

"I think we misunderstand each other perfectly."

Swiftly, she put the rod to fifteen and pressed it against him until he passed out from the pain. She wanted his fire but could not allow the insolence. She called the guards to take him back to his cell.

These sessions always did wonders for her mood. She would have liked to stay awhile longer but she had a meeting with the trade commissioner from Crasus Major. At least officially; in reality it was with the Terra Nostra. She was hoping to use their special skills to help out in Sector Ten. A few well-placed 'accidents' could prove useful.

* * *

The medtech checked his patient as the guards waited. The heart was weak but that was normal; he had been there for almost a year after all. He desperately needed rest; hopefully for the prisoner this was in the schedule.

This was an exceptional example of an alpha grade; they made the best citizens as well as dangerous criminals. Unfortunately this one had attracted the attention of the Federation President. The medtech knew that it was none of his business. He finished his exam; no need for restoratives or blood fusion to replenish fluids. Not this time anyway. The guards released the prisoner from the chair and reapplied the restraints. They pulled the still unconscious man to his feet and took him back to the cells.

* * *

Back in her spacious Presidential office waiting for the trade commissioner, Servalan's mind wandered, remembering the two occasions in which Avon had kissed her in the past. Hate and passion mingled together. They could never accept each other as partners; it would always end in one killing the other, neither of them had any illusions about that. Neither of them could afford not to and she had used this knowledge to provoke a reaction from him today. Her face was relaxed and thoughtful as she contemplated this.

"Send him in when he gets here."

Her face immediately assumed her normally superior but pleasant mask. The Terra Nostra representative was a devious, ambitious, sniveling gangster and no match for her. She was definitely in a better mood as she smiled that cold smile that would send a chill down anyone's spine.


	2. Chapter 2

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Two

A signal alarm went off. "It wasn't me_," _was Vila Restal's automatic response. He had been working on a tricky double-locking, laser-secured wall safe when they heard the sirens.

Uh oh.

"Give me a lock, any lock, and I'll have it cracked before Bozo here can count to ten," he had boasted to them. _Villa, you've done it now._

His companions, the ring-leader with a military-bearing and a smart-looking blond young woman carrying a satchel, looked towards a tall, thin man posted by the door. They had broken into the Prime Minister's office on Biliar Prime in Sector Four. The safe had been hidden behind the portrait of the first Biliaran Prime Minister, a distinguished looking character who looked a lot like the current head of state; not the most original hiding place for a safe.

Vila only knew that the leader's name was Argus. He wasn't even sure if it was a last name or a first name, or whether it was his real name at all. One thing he did know, that military bearing was not a fake, nor was his leadership ability. Some people were leaders by training, others were natural-born leaders; Argus definitely fell into the latter category.

"It's still clear, " the look-out told them.

They all wore the two-tone brown and black dress uniforms of the Biliaran House Guard and carried modified hand blasters, ones which made no noise. Vila had refused to carry one when they offered it to him. "I don't like weapons. They have a nasty tendency to go off."

The overcomm system announced, "Attention. All guards to assigned stations. The Federation President is approaching the landing terminal."

_Whew_, the alarm wasn't his fault.

_Wait a minute. The Federation President? That means Servalan!_

He had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Keep going," Argus urged him. "We don't have much time. We have to get out before they discover we've been here."

"You're telling me. You didn't tell me Servalan was coming, " Vila said accusingly.

"Would you have come if we had told you?" the ring-leader asked.

"Not in a million years_, " _the thief replied. _I'd be running the other way, very fast._

The sinking feeling in his stomach was telling him that he had joined another bunch with a political agenda and not just plain greed as their motivation. The only thing that ever got anyone was lots of dying. He was very allergic to dying; he had had enough of that onboard the _Liberator_ with Blake's crew. It was a good thing this bunch only knew him by his alias, Gan Lason.

_I need a drink. _That strong green alcohol on the _Liberator_. He never found out what it was exactly but what he wouldn't give to have a glass of it now, mixed with some of that good soma.

The leader told him, "Then the sooner you get it open the sooner we can all leave."

"Alright, alright you don't have to tell me twice." Vila turned to the wall safe again. Fear always sharpened his senses and he had it open in short order. The ring-leader pulled him out of the way and began rifling through the safe; pulling out various items and handing selected ones to his blond partner who was ready with a recorder device pulled from her satchel.

The items he removed from the safe were recorder crystals. No valuable stones, no gold; they were after recorder crystals.

_I should have known, _thought Vila.

If Argus hadn't been so persuasive Vila would never have joined them on this dangerous little venture. The ring-leader had told him just enough to whet his greed, and flattered him just enough to overcome his natural aversion to putting himself in harm's way; though Vila preferred to think of it more as his sixth sense.

Vila did not have much fondness for alpha grades and Argus was clearly one. In the thief's experience, they were either much too serious, like Blake. Or too infernally clever, like Avon. _Avon!_ They all seemed to like treating him as the hired help except when they needed his expertise.

_Vila, you fool_, he berated himself. Avon would have had the perfect response to the situation they were in; Vila didn't know what it would be but Avon would have had one. Now why did he have that thought? Avon was dead to him.

_Traitor! Betrayer!_ Avon had killed Blake; Vila had witnessed it with his own eyes.

People said that Avon had sold out his own crew to the Federation in return for great riches. If it hadn't been for that incident on the autoshuttle, when Avon had almost thrown him out of the airlock in order to save himself, Vila wouldn't have believed it as easily, until then he had always felt safe with Avon. Avon always survived, that's why Vila had followed him despite his open lack of respect for the thief. Even earlier when Blake's crusading dreams constantly led them into danger, they had always depended on Avon even though they didn't trust him. Cally had been right when she said that they could not afford to lose him.

"How many more?" Argus asked his blond partner, looking at the chronometer on his wrist unit.

"Almost done," she replied, "this is the last one."

The arrival of the President meant that all of the security forces were concentrated on the pomp and ceremony of receiving her; this was what this particular band of so-called burglars was counting on.

They had expertly avoided all the patrols and guards. Vila realized the band must have had an inside contact. Yes, a band of thieves with a military (Vila didn't like that one bit), or ex-military (he didn't know which was worse) leader and who had an inside contact to a secure government building.

_Vila you must be losing your natural caution. Next to go will be your natural charm._

* * *

Servalan detested pomp and ceremony unless it served her purposes. This was her first official visit to Biliar Prime. The Biliarans had enthusiastically joined the Federation six months ago; of course the fact that the other two planets in the system had fallen to Federation forces helped in convincing them. So they were being rewarded by a visit from the President and Supreme Empress. 

That was the official reason.

The other real reason was top-secret. The Biliarans had a potential alternative to Pylene-50, the pacification drug. With the rebels possibly having an antidote and the ability to mass produce it, this new virus could put the Federation's re-expansion back on track. It was new technology, a techno-virus hybrid. Servalan was here to visit the research facilities and observe a demonstration first-hand.

"Madame President, we are most honoured by your presence, " the Prime Minister of Biliar greeted her formally. Bain Dam' Fernes was a balding man who wore a dark green official robe fringed with silver and had a glowing, panther-shaped crest crouched on his right shoulder. Those easily flattered were easily manipulated and Dam' Fernes was not one of those. He recognized the danger his people were in when Biliar Two and Outer Biliar fell to the Federation and had made a political move to position his planet into a position of security and influence; hence the official petition to join the Federation and the unofficial offer of new technology which could aid their new masters in consolidating their position. Servalan wanted that technology.

* * *

_I should have known better_ thought Vila, still berating himself as he waited for the blond girl to finish with the data crystals. He should have been warned when the group, specifically Argus, approached him wanting someone with special skills who could break into a secure residence with a tricky double-locking laser lock and do it without leaving a trace. To do a break and enter job was easy despite the technical complications, that was his specialty. To do so without leaving any evidence they had been there, that took art. He had been flattered mercilessly and the prize had been tempting. 

He should have known better.

Everything went according to plan. In the confusion of the Federation President's arrival the little band escaped without notice.

* * *

Vila boarded a civilian luxury liner with a group of off-world tourists returning home. He promptly took up residence in one of the many bars aboard and proceeded to make up for lost time. The job had gone smoothly but being on the same planet as Servalan was too close a call; being in the same solar system was too close. He took another large swig of his drink. 

_I wonder what was on those data crystals._ He shook his head. _No Vila, not a good idea. Remember what curiosity did to the cat._ Time for more healthy pursuits like drinking.

* * *

"Get up!" A black-shirted thug kicked Avon in the side as he lay on the ground in another one of the interrogation rooms. This one was completely devoid of furniture. The walls were grey; there was only ever one colour in the whole facility, shades of depressing grey. 

Oomph Despite the doctor's recommendation rest had not been on the schedule for this prisoner. The past week had been particularly brutal. Exhaustion always facilitated the mind-torture cycle; a regimen of drugs and mind destabilization techniques had left him barely able to distinguish between reality and the ever disturbing nightmares. He was barely hanging on when they switched tactics; a mistake for them but fortunate for him. The psych treatments were the ones which brought him closest to the breaking point.

Right now they were in the process of a simple beating; he preferred those. Pain was honest and helped bring him back to a semblance of reality. One of the thugs grabbed his left arm and yanked him up. Ahhh. That shoulder had already been struck repeatedly. One of their favourite techniques was to hit the same spot over and over again so it became more vulnerable.

_Predictable._

They propped himup against the wall; even with the support he could barely stay standing. In rapid succession each of his tormentors struck with their batons until he fell to his knees, his body bent over in pain. His hands were always bound behind him in the interrogation rooms, unless he was strapped down, so he couldn't even raise them to protect himself. There were more strikes against his shoulder.

_The same one of course._

He laughed that superior laugh that always infuriated them. At this point, they always beat him into unconsciousness.

_Predictable again._

These beta grades were relentlessly efficient but lacked imagination; a few more times and he would be back in the med unit.

When they finally finished with him, and the med unit had patched him up, they returned him to his cell. Avon lay on his side facing the wall. The over bright lights above, along with the periodic screams and occasional begging from other prisoners, made it difficult to sleep.

Something had changed in him with Servalan's visit. Since that day on Gauda Prime when he had killed Blake, he no longer cared about anything anymore, not even himself; a dangerous place for him. The visit from his old enemy had renewed his desire to fight.

_Thank you Servalan._

His desire to die after the events at Gauda Prime, had been as strong as the day when he found out about Anna's treachery. He had done his best to provoke his captors into killing him, but they were under strict orders not. They had tortured him mercilessly trying to extract ORAC's location for Servalan.

Part of him had welcomed the pain then; he was not a man of emotion but the death of Blake at his hands, had sent his mind over the edge. His desire for death warred with his stubborn refusal to give Servalan what she wanted. If he had given her ORAC, given her everything, he would become her slave. Or more likely she would have killed him. He rebelled at the thought of dying knowing she had won. The only thing as strong as his survival instinct was his aversion to being used and manipulated.

If they had offered him a deal he would have accepted it long ago even though he hated the Federation; then he would disappear so they would never be able to find him again. But with Servalan as President, that was out of the question. Any deal with the Federation would mean a deal with her; he would be safer in a pit of angry swamp adders.

He could not give them ORAC either, with or without Servalan. That technology would mean he would not be safe anywhere, no matter how many billions of credits he had.

So he was trapped.

And now with his reputation destroyed - not that he ever cared about a reputation - if he ever managed to obtain his freedom no place would be safe for him. Everyone would be hunting him; for revenge, for bounty, for fame, or for the great Federation. Servalan had made sure of that.

_Well, I'm alone again, at last._

His laughter filled the cell, interspersed with gasps of pain from his injuries.

* * *

There was constant active surveillance on all the cells in this the most exclusive of the Federation interrogation centres and especially on this special prisoner. Almost all of the inmates were political prisoners, traitors, idealists, or people who needed to be persuaded to part quickly with information vital to the Federation. As a result the place had heavy security and anyone attacking it would be committing suicide. The staff were all specialists, the best in the arts of persuasion and control. 

There was a maximum of fifty prisoners in this facility at any one time. Shrinker had been one of their top para-investigators before he disappeared. His disappearance had been linked to this prisoner, so this one received special attention. The security observer watching the prisoner heard the laughter from the cell. In this place everyone broke eventually and no one ever left unless they were dead or broken.

This man was different from the other prisoners usually brought to this facility, and not just because the President had a special interest in him. Most prisoners unfortunate enough to be sent here were strong-willed, intelligent and driven. A large majority were alpha grades but even so this one was exceptional; his torturers were the best in the Centre.

In the first two months after his capture, in a clandestine off-site location, they had worked on him in secrecy on behalf of Servalan. She was not yet President of the Federated Worlds then. The prisoner's sharp wit goaded his tormenters into even more brutality than they were already using on him, to obtain the information Servalan desired. From the first day he seemed to be inviting abuse and death. They had tried some highly dangerous experimental drugs on him, and even with the best medical care he had come close to dying several times, something they had been ordered not to allow to happen.

But then Servalan had assumed the Presidency and it seemed no longer as urgent for her to obtain information from him. At that point he became an official resident of the Federation Special Detention Centre; a resident whose identity was known only to the special team who were assigned to work on him. That had been six months ago. No prisoner had ever been here for so long without either giving them what they wanted or dying in the process, or becoming insane.

_By the time we are finished with you there will be very little left_, thought the security observer as the sound of laughter continued to come over the speakers.


	3. Chapter 3

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Three

The roulette wheel spun; Vila was already six thousand credits down. Fate again chose a number which was of no use to him.

_Where are you when I need you ORAC?_

He remembered breaking the Big Wheel casino in Freedom City with ORAC's help. Good times.

ORAC. Avon had hidden ORAC. _Betrayer!_ Only Avon knew where ORAC was and no one knew where Avon was. _Traitor!_ There were rumors that Avon was hiding on one of the border planets, or had bought one of the border planets with the hundreds of millions of credits Servalan had paid him to betray the rebel summit conference, and the _Scorpio_ crew. _You_ b_etray me! Betrayed us!_ Others said he was working with the Federation to rebuild a new secret Central Control base. There was also one rumor which had him in Federation custody undergoing torture, though there was no explanation why. That one didn't make any sense.

Vila had a pounding headache now.

_Wherever you are Avon I hope you're suffering ten times more than I am, a hundred times_.

Memories of that day on Gauda Prime flooded Vila's mind in a jumble. He remembered Tarrant shouting out Avon's name as he tried to stop the analyst from shooting Blake; Avon shooting Blake three times. Lots of blood. Federation troopers rushed in and killed Dayna and Soolin, but not before they had taken out most of the soldiers. Pain as a blaster caught him full in the back and he collapsed into darkness. He didn't see Tarrant get shot but found out later that he had also died that day. Later he had woken up in the hospital ward of a Federation prison.

_Oh my head! I need a drink._

Vila got up from his "lucky" streak at the tables and went in search of a cure for his headache.

The thief maintained an apartment under the alias of Gan Lason in Commerce City. Like Freedom City and Space City, it was wide-open neutral territory where anything goes; and in the case of CC, anything could be bought or sold. For a master thief like Vila, it was the perfect place to dispose of any item without the encumbrance of restrictions or Federation red. Beneath the veneer of corporate legitimacy perfectly legal businesses could pursue less than savoury practices with impunity.

* * *

Vila sat at the casino bar nursing his third drink; it was almost empty. The pounding in his head had finally dulled to a quiet roar. The faint nautical theme of the bar meant that various depictions of dead fish were staring at him mockingly.

"Give my friend another of the same," a man in a black jacket and dark grey pants instructed the bartender, and slipped into the seat next to Vila. "And give me a scotch, neat."

Vila turned his head towards his benefactor, raising his glass and almost choked when he saw who it was. _Argus. _It was the ring-leader with the military bearing from the little escapade on Biliar Prime; the one which netted recorder crystals, instead of good old-fashioned loot. That had been over two standard weeks ago.

In civilian clothes, Argus looked out-of-place. One always got the impression that something was missing, which was not surprising since he had spent most of his life in a Federation military uniform but that was definitely not all he was. There was a duality to his nature which made him a difficult person to pin down; a faint polish to his manner, which he could never hide, marked him as an alpha grade. He possessed both a deceptive strength and a simple directness. When he was still, he was very still; when he moved, it was with a subtle power; when he struck, it was with surprising speed. Argus was no one's fool; this was the man who now sat beside Vila.

The bartender laid another glass in front of the thief.

"I'm not available, I'm on vacation," he told his benefactor and raised his glass. "Cheers".

"I have another job for your special talents," Argus told him.

"My doctor says the climate here is better for my health, I always listen to my doctor," Vila replied.

Recognizing that flattery would not work this time, Argus changed tactics. He did not like this part, but he rarely dwelt on things which had to be. As an ex-military leader, he always did what needed to be done.

"And does your doctor know that you are not the simple thief you pretend to be? That your name is really Vila Restal, and you are a wanted Federation fugitive who ran with Blake and the _Scorpio_ rebels?"

'Shhhhh_, " _Vila almost ducked under the bar, "not so loud."

He looked around nervously, searching for a direction to run. Even in neutral territory where everything goes, it was not healthy to be known as someone who has a Federation price on his head.

_Enemies you can trust, they will always betray you_. _Friends you can never trust_. Avon had once said that to Blake, with that familiar cynical smile as he said the last line, reflecting his low opinion of the human race in general.

_Avon the Betrayer!_ Vila's headache had returned.

_You never know who you can trust, isn't that right, Avon._

* * *

Charles Tarvin was a senior member of the Central Security Bureau. He was smiling as he read a report on Biliar; all was going according to plan. The data crystals were the perfect trap. The moment the rebels decoded the information and released it into their system an ASP, an advanced security program which was a smart computer virus, would be able to track their every move along the information network. It was a technologically brilliant tool virtually undetectable, except by the best computer specialists; even they would be hard-pressed to find it unless they knew what to look for.

_The President will be pleased._

He had watched recordings from the hidden cameras of the break-in of the Biliaran Prime Minister's safe. It was bait the rebels could not refuse. Little did they know the depth and level at which the Biliaran Prime Minister was willing to cooperate with the Federation. The burglary was well-planned and executed flawlessly. The Central Bureau had asked the Biliaran Minister not to inform his own security forces. They wanted to allow the rebels to "earn" their "prize."

Tarvin admired Vila Restal's skill in bypassing the defenses. The thief raised burglary to artistic levels. Central Security had been aware of his every movement ever since they had "allowed" him to escape after implanting him with false memories under President Servalan's orders. A passive tracker implanted in his back helped them track him at will, and did not show up on scans unless activated.

One of Vila's companions was a person of interest to Central Security. Drel Argus, the ringleader of the little burglary band. Federation records showed that he had achieved the equivalent of Space Commander rank in Landforce Command, the elite commando group of the assault forces. He had quit his commission shortly before he could be court-martialed for refusing to obey a direct order. His men had helped him escape and he had disappeared from the sensors of Central Security for over five years. Until now.

* * *

Prisoner A5428 was suspended from the ceiling. His back was a bloody mess from the lashes against his back from an old-fashioned whip. "How much longer do you think you can hold out?" his torturer asked during a break in the pain being inflicted. Electronic whips caused the same amount of pain but left no marks. The interrogator preferred the traditional way; there was something most satisfying in seeing blood.

"Why are you in a hurry?" the prisoner asked in a strained voice. He cried out involuntarily as the whip bit into his flesh again. At some point he passed out and they revived him with a splash of water. Blood and water dripping down his back had pooled at the prisoner's feet.

"Tell us what we want to know and this can end," the interrogator told him. It was always the same demand over and over.

_Nothing new._

"And deprive me of your company?" the prisoner said in a toneless cynical voice. The questioner nodded at his partner to continue. Physical pain would not break this one but it did serve to break him down. There was nothing quite like the psychological effects of incapacitation and helplessness on a person used to being in control.

For the para-investigators, someone who would not break was a challenge to their professional pride. They noticed that there was something different with the prisoner recently. For months he had remained silent except for cries of pain; but in the last few weeks he had started responding with flippant remarks, which completely ignored their demands and questions just as he did in the beginning. There was also something else different; something they didn't understand. They were perplexed.

If Servalan had had the time to personally track his sessions, she would have known immediately. No one knew him better than her; if they had they would have recognized the dangerous turn.

Conversely no one knew Servalan better than Avon; if they had the Biliaran Prime Minister would have been watching his back. No one had the upper-hand with Servalan and anyone who tried to negotiate from a position of strength should not expect a long life. Bain Dam' Fernes did not know that his time would have been better spent in putting his affairs in order.

Ready and waiting in the wings with eager anticipation was his friend and Vice Premier Yven Robet; a man much more easily flattered. Unbeknownst to the Prime Minister, one of the Federation President's secret meetings had been with his old friend.


	4. Chapter 4

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Four

_I don't like the looks of this. _Vila was sitting at a table with Argus, Tess Smith his blond companion from the Biliaran robbery, plus a handful of others. Having been 'persuaded' to help them in their next venture, Vila had been introduced to the larger rebel group.

The dynamics of the group created an easy creative atmosphere. It was clear that they had all worked together before and were comfortable with each other. Argus's presence provided an intensity which helped them to focus on the seriousness of their task.

Projected above the table was a detailed holo-print of the building they were going to break into; the Federation Medical Research Centre, Department Four on Tingash in the Singoa system. It was not a triple-A security installation but it was still categorized as an A-level.

Once decoded the data crystals from Biliar had revealed a dangerous new bio-weapon; a genetically-engineered nano-virus which was even more dangerous than Pylene-50. This was no simple pacification drug; not only did it have the same usefulness but it was also a programmable virus which could be triggered to destroy any host when a specific coded signal was sent.

Vila shuddered; this was just as bad as IMIPAK, the projector weapon the _Liberator_ crew had run across years ago. The Induced Molecular Instability Projector and Key had the potential of instantly killing anyone at anytime who had been physically marked for death by the unit.

The group was meeting in Tess's apartment, a large residence in a posh corner of Commerce City where the spoiled children of the rich and powerful held court. Strange goings on at all hours were normal, and the security forces had learned to turn a blind eye. Questioning the actions of the rich, or their children was not a career-enhancing move, which was perfect for the rebels.

On the surface Tess was the pampered younger daughter of a board member, of one of the largest neutral arms cartels. This was borne out by the lavishness of her apartment, and the numerous toys strewn about which only the rich could afford and only a privileged few had access to. She was much more than that though, many of the group's actions were financed by her patronage. She was also not one to shrink from getting her hands dirty as was proven by her participation in the Biliaran operation. She was vibrant, bold, highly intelligent and also served as the group's computer expert.

The group was listening intently as she went over the details of the part of the operation her tech group was responsible for.

As he listened, Vila had the impression that it was not serious to her; it was more like a game, an exercise. She was thrilled by the danger and loved the challenge.

Vila had always been of the opinion that you could never trust genius because you never know what they are up to; and the trouble with those who think they are geniuses is that what they are up to, will also most likely get you killed.

Breaking into a secure Federation building was only reserved for heroes and fools. This band of rebels had both in abundance. The crew of the _Liberator_ had had both as well, but they also had Avon. Vila's headache returned. _Avon the Betrayer_. Even before they had ORAC, Blake had been able to achieve greater damage with just six people then he had in all those years of planning rebellion on Earth. The difference had been Avon.

Part of any endeavor Blake undertook against the Federation inevitably began with trying to convince Avon to help them.

Blake and Avon, with the annoyingly superior sentient computer ORAC, and the advanced _Liberator_ ship as tools, had almost brought down the entire Federation.

But Avon had betrayed them in the end.

_You can never trust genius, can you, Avon?_

Vila had only been half paying attention to the group's plan but now they were turning to his role. Argus took over from Tess and to Vila's great embarrassment and horror said, "I would like to introduce you all to Vila Restal. Those of you who followed Blake's incredible history and that should be all of us should know who he is."

The entire group turned towards him as one; he could feel their awe.

_Oh wonderful. I've been trying to stay under everyone's detectors, and now I'm a living legend. Why can't I find some safe criminal organization that doesn't have any political agenda?_

* * *

At the end of the meeting, the group split up and went their separate ways. They would not meet or speak to each other again until the operation in two standard weeks' time.

"Vila, stay for a few minutes, we have some things to talk over, " Argus requested, "and there is someone who wants to see you."

"Can this wait until next time? All this conspiring takes it out of me."

The door buzzer went off.

"Our visitor is early," said Tess as she checked the vidscreen on her desk and then pressed the door control.

"Jenna!" Vila shouted out in surprise as his former crewmate from the _Liberator_ entered through the opened door.

Jenna was beautiful as ever. Normally mid-length blond hair had been cut short; she was wearing a dark burgundy leather jump-suit with a flower pattern over the shoulders. Her taste in clothes had not changed; Vila had always admired her fashion-sense.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, Vila." Jenna smiled warmly and hugged him. "You look good."

"And you look alive." Vila still couldn't believe his eyes. "Why are you alive?"

"That's a fine welcome for a former partner in crime."

"I mean, I'm thrilled you're alive, but…_, " _words failed him and all he could do was repeat, "why are you still alive?"

"What gave you the impression I was dead? Zen should have been able to tell you that I survived the alien attack at Star One and I was rescued by a cargo ship heading to Morphamel."

"Zen did tell us that; that was three years ago. But this was more recent. People said you were dead; that you'd run into trouble at a Federation blockade and self-destructed. They said your ship took half a squadron with you."

"Oh that. That was a story Blake sometimes told to people he was testing, just to gauge their reaction. I've been operating undercover for a year out in Sector Ten; it was more useful that people believed I was dead."

Dead. They both fell silent. There was a topic that had to be dealt with.

Argus signaled to Tess, and then he turned to Jenna and Vila and said, "We'll leave the two of you alone to reminisce."

Vila had almost forgotten they were not alone.

"Yes help yourselves to drinks, we'll be back later," Tess told them. She and Argus exited the apartment.

Jenna started. "What happened on Gauda Prime, Vila? Other than the Federation forces only you and Avon survived. There were all kinds of rumours but we never could get a clear picture of what really happened; only the official story that Avon betrayed all of you and killed Blake. I never trust official news; I need to know the truth Vila."

"Avon killed Blake," he said simply. His stomach knotted.

"So the rumours are true." Jenna was both shocked and not surprised at the same time. Until Vila had confirmed it, a small part of her was not willing to completely believe it.

She of everyone onboard _Liberator_ had been the most like Avon; so she knew what a self-serving, self-protective person he was, like she was until she joined Blake.

Life onboard the _Liberator_ had been interesting. None of them were ever sure how Avon would react or how far they could trust him; but from the very beginning, even on the prison ship when they were all being transported to the penal colony on Cygnus Alpha, Blake recognized that they could get much further with Avon's help than without him.

Blake had always trusted Avon. Not completely, but in a way which Jenna did not understand; and seemingly in spite of himself, Avon had never let them down.

After the alien attack at Star One and after Blake and Jenna left the Liberator, they had followed the actions of Avon and the _Scorpio_ crew with interest. What Avon's group had achieved against the Federation, and Servalan in particular, had taken the heat off their own activities in organizing the various rebel factions. Jenna thought it was unlike Avon to be the crusader; Blake had disagreed. And now Blake was dead, betrayed by the man he had trusted.

"Tell me how it happened. How was the _Scorpio_ destroyed?"

"After the Xenon summit conference was destroyed, Avon said we needed a new figurehead to lead the rebel alliance; then he told us that ORAC had found Blake working as a bounty hunter on Gauda Prime. So we went looking for him, but the moment we reached orbit over G-P, we were attacked without warning. Dayna, Soolin and I escaped by teleport."

"You had teleport ability on the _Scorpio_?"

"Yes, Avon developed it with ORAC's help."

They both looked at each other. Avon. Damn. Like ORAC he had always been too useful to be gotten rid of.

"Tarrant went down with the _Scorpio_ and Avon escaped by teleport. He left Tarrant to die on the ship, "Vila said bitterly. Avon had deliberately never answered his question about what happened in the final moments on the _Scorpio_ and why Tarrant ended up going down with the ship.

Vila could almost feel Jenna's anger grow as she had heard his account of the events on Gauda Prime.

"But Tarrant survived and was rescued by Blake. Avon found me, Soolin and Dayna and we all followed a flyer to an underground silo. The moment Avon saw Blake though, he shot him. Three times" Vila said angrily, "Blake didn't even have time to defend himself. Tarrant tried to stop Avon but then Federation troops came in and everything went to pieces. We didn't stand a chance. Everyone died: Soolin, Dayna, and then I was shot and blacked out; we managed to take out most of the soldiers though. Everything is a blur after that. I woke up in a prison hospital. Servalan was there. They questioned me but I didn't really know anything. A couple of weeks later, I escaped. I've been in hiding ever since, until your friends found me."

"I'm sorry about that. Argus can be somewhat forceful when he has a goal."

"Jenna, I cannot get the image of Avon standing over Blake's body out of my head."

Vila's headache was gone.

"Do you know where Avon went to after Gauda Prime?"

"No. Only the same rumours you've probably heard."

"What about ORAC?"

"Avon hid ORAC before we went into the underground silo, none of us knew where. I know the Federation troops searched all over and couldn't find it. That was one of the questions they kept asking me in the prison, over and over but I didn't know. Only Avon knows; but if Avon was working with the Federation, wouldn't he have given them ORAC already?"

"Avon is much too smart to give anyone ORAC."

"Well with all that money and ORAC it's going to be hard to find him."

"Don't worry Vila, our time will come. He can't remain hidden forever."

As the two caught up on the last few years and reminisced about the past the hidden tracer embedded in Vila's back, silently activated in response to a short burst signal sent by an orbiting security satellite. It stayed on for thirty seconds, and turned off again. The rebel group had been ultra-cautious about security, sweeping the entire apartment and all the attendees before the meeting began. But they had not picked up the tracer because it had not been active. The device was also smart enough not to activate while sweeper beams were in the vicinity but the Central Security computers would have registered the sweeper activity from the tracer and flagged it in a report to the responsible parties.

Unknown to the security program which logged this activity, something else had also been monitoring the flags from this particular tracer. At the moment its attention was on the group which Vila Restal had joined. Something in the group's movements indicated another possible person of interest.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Tingash was a large, barely hospitable planet in the Singoa system in the heart of Zone Seven. Electrical storms, ice storms, sandstorms and windstorms were regular seasonal occurrences. Only the most desperate or suicidal colonist would have chosen this harsh environment as a possible home.

For Department Four of Federation Medical Research, also known as the Advanced Technogenics Division, it was a useful laboratory to test its creations. This was known as the birthplace of the mutoids, where they were first created and where all mutoids are "born". As a result, everything was functional and ugly. It was also the secret location where the new techno-virus from Biliar was being tested and enhanced.

Jenna was in a "decommissioned" Federation cruiser, _The_ _Carver_, orbiting the planet. It was parked over a satellite "blind spot". Tess had hacked into one of the orbiting surveillance satellites and encouraged it to overlook a certain area; two teams of three each had then descended in a fast scout shuttle. There had been no communication from the teams since they left the ship, they would maintain silence protocol until after the operation had been completed or if they ran into trouble.

The rebel cruiser was a former Federation space cruiser which had been severely damaged during the alien invasion at Star One. The crew had abandoned ship and space pirates had 'salvaged" it. Consequently when some of the pirates had joined the rebellion they had offered the use of the ship.

"I don't have a good feeling about this." Jenna recalled Vila's parting warning just as he entered the shuttle. She smiled. Vila always had feelings of discomfort when any degree of danger was involved but she had learned from Blake that in order to beat the ruthlessness of the Federation you had to take chances. She was maintaining an increased vigilance though.

Tess's Unit Two easily gained access to one of the terminals in the archive area, a dusty corridor in the sub-basement. The walls were grey, the doors were grey, even things which were not grey, seemed grey.

One thing this band of rebels was good at was infiltration; several members had been former Federation assault troops. They entered cautiously but there was no one in the Discontinued Research Archive room. One of the group stayed guard by the door in case someone wanted night time reading.

"This is an old terminal, belongs in a museum," remarked Sato, one of Tess's companions as he examined one of the computer alcoves. He was the electrical engineer of the group and was responsible for tapping their hand computer unit into the research center's information and control system.

"As long as it has access to the main computer system I don't care if it still uses a mouse," Tess replied.

"Not that bad, maybe one generation above," her companion joked as he opened up a panel in the alcove. He studied the circuits then took the computer hand-unit, some laser cables and tools from various pockets in his vest. "This'll just take a few minutes."

They were ahead of schedule but all of them knew that the less time spent in a Federation building the safer they would be. After a few minutes the unit lit up as it registered the Department Four computer systems.

Tess had put on the head-unit which was an uplink bio-interface and plugged it into the activated hand-unit, immediately she was connected to the computer systems. For a moment she was disoriented as information flooded her mind in a jumble but she was soon able to bring order out of the chaos.

"Alright, I'm in." She gave a running commentary as she went on. "Let's see what we have access to from here. DSA archives. Routing to Central Archives. Central Archives Registry. Hmmm some interesting items here but not what we're looking for. Ah, this is interesting. What do you know, someone left a backdoor. Ok we're into Central Research Registry."

She routed some information directly to the hand-unit and fell silent as she worked on the data.

"Got several possibilities." Focusing back on the uplink, she started checking them out, softly, trying to leave no electronic prints; she had a delicate touch.

"Found it." Her voice rose slightly in excitement. "Project Cooperation, wonderful. Level 5 security access required that was to be expected. This will take a little while." She began tapping on the hand-unit as she set to work.

The other infiltration group was waiting in a dark supply room for the signal from Unit Two; this was Vila's group, Argus was the unit leader. Vila was not good at waiting in Federation supply cupboards in the dark. He gripped his tool bag tighter.

"If I knew we were going to be waiting this long, I would have brought refreshments."

_Civilians_ thought Argus. "Do not break silence protocol," the rebel leader whispered to Vila.

In addition to Argus, Vila's other companion was Flayson, who was also unmistakably ex-Federation military. Neither seemed to have a sense of humor; Vila did not trust people who had no sense of humour. If Argus and Flayson had known that the embedded tracer in Vila's back had been on since planet fall and had stayed on, they would have had even less of a sense of humor.

**********

Charles Sester had been observing prisoner A5428's interrogation sessions for more than a standard week. When President Servalan had first ordered him to report to the Federation Special Detention Centre, he had been insulted. He considered the specialists there to be brutish thugs who had the subtlety of extinct Earth elephants and to be asked to be associated with such activity was beneath him as a psychostrategist. Watching the man's reactions while being physically and mentally tortured had made the psychostrategist change his mind. Sester considered few his intellectual equal and meeting a worthy opponent was even rarer; this man would be such a challenge.

Kerr Avon. Top percentile among the alpha-grades. Computer engineer and multi-disciplined analyst. Educated at the elite Federation Military Science and Engineering Academy. Used by the Federation in various capacities including cipher technology and the matter transmission project. Specialized in unsolvable problems.

The ginger-haired Sester studied the report on Avon's background in his guest quarters at the SDC. Reading between the lines added interesting insights.

Brilliant and totally without scruples. Independent spirit. Emotionally cold. Passion for research. Did not suffer fools.

_They must have been wary of you from the start. These Federation types do not like or trust intelligence they cannot control._

Sester understood that very well.

_In the Federation world, where every careless word can land you in trouble with the Security Forces, you must have been in trouble often. An independence like yours would not have stood that for long._

Sester needed more information, thumbing the vidcomm, he asked for the Center's Senior Controller.

**********

Later that day Avon was strapped to a chair in one of the psych interrogation rooms. His head was surrounded by various instruments projecting images into his mind. A drug injector had been inserted into his right arm.

_"Let's play a game of chess Avon" said Vila._

_"Only if you're not tired of losing." Avon was tired. He should go back to his quarters and get some rest but instead he found himself sitting down and arranging the pieces. They were in the Liberator's control room, seated in the central meeting area._

_As they played Avon realized something was not right, this was not Vila. Vila had never played on this level before. There was another game being played and it was not chess._

"No!" Avon voiced his anguished denial of the scene before him. His mind struggled against the vision.

"He's breaking through it," the technician reported.

"Increase the dosage by .3," ordered the interrogator, "and reinforce the image."

Sester was in an adjacent chair, connected to the holo-vision via a headset. The computer was projecting Vila but he was the one providing the chess moves.

One could take the measure of a man by how he played the game. The chess was the psychostrategist's idea; doing it this way as part of the psych-torture cycle, had not. He had voiced strong objections to using this method. Avon was too intelligent to be fooled.

Avon moaned as the increased level of drugs coursed through his veins. His breathing rate increased, as if he was in a fight.

**********

_"It's your move Avon." _

_Avon looked down at the board trying to focus._

_"Avon are you ok?"_

_"Yes." He reached forward and moved a piece._

_Several more moves; he was having trouble concentrating. Why was that? He reached forward for the next move and dropped his hand._

_"You're not Vila," he accused the image sitting across the board from him. "You're not real."_

_"No I'm not Vila. But I am real." The voice was not Vila's. _

Sester had decided that the truth at this point would be more useful.

"Stop! What are you doing?" the interrogator asked Sester. The questioner was angry at the disruption of the carefully controlled scenario. He nodded to the technician who entered the sequence to change the drug mixture.

Avon screamed. His body felt as if it were being burned alive and did not stop until he passed out. The medtech tended to him and brought him back. But the moment he regained consciousness it was to more screaming. They drugs continued to flow into him even after he fainted. After the third time, they changed the mixture back to the hallucinogenics.

"This will never work against a man like this." Sester was disgusted. He knew that the Centre's specialists were not pleased by his presence. They considered it an indictment on their abilities that an outsider had been brought in. The lines had been drawn.

But Sester did not need their cooperation; he only needed them not to interfere. There was only one way to do that quickly, Sester turned his back on them and walked out of the room.

**********

Back in his temporary quarters at the Special Detention Centre Sester contacted Servalan.

"Madame President."

"You have made progress?"

"Not quite. Your people here do not appear to understand that I am to have free reign in interrogating the prisoner."

"They are specialists, Sester. They are very good at what they do."

"Against other people perhaps, but not for this one. The only way to beat him is to really beat him. None of your specialist thugs have anything close to the intellect to do that."

Servalan had known this which was why she had brought Sester in.

"And you are willing to stake your intelligence on that?" she asked.

"Of course," he replied fully understanding her implications. "I am a psychostrategist after all. You wouldn't have brought me in otherwise."

"Very well, I will send your authorization to the Senior Controller. You will have whatever you require."

"Thank you Madame President, a pleasure as always." This woman had a genius of another sort entirely and was extremely dangerous; Sester appreciated that.

Chapter Six

Argus's hand-held unit activated; it was receiving a burst transmission from Unit Two. They pored over details of the route they had just received and the potential hazards.

_You're good. I give you that, _Vila thought as Argus went over their tactical strategy.

_All I ask is that you don't get us killed. Nothing beats not getting killed._

"Ready Vila?"

"Would it make a difference if I said no?"

"No." If he had allowed himself to relax, Argus would have grinned at the thief's characteristic lack of enthusiasm for danger but in operations mode the rebel leader had no sense of humour. He knew that the thief always came through despite his other failings.

Vila grumbled under his breath, "Then why did you ask?"

"Flayson?"

"Ready."

"Time to go."

Checking that the corridor was clear they exited the supply room. It was the night cycle at the facility; other than guards at their assigned stations and the odd patrol all should be quiet.

As Unit One advanced through the facility avoiding the various patrols, Tess jumped the surveillance monitors along their route; looping just enough to present blank corridors without raising alarms. Tess was perspiring; this was harder than expected. The active sweeping of the system done to detect tampering was leaving less of a window than expected; there was no margin for error.

She was doing brilliantly but unfortunately with her attention fully occupied, there were several passive detector points which went unnoticed.

Unit One had reached the corridor around the corner from the Level Five Security access door. Argus held up two fingers to indicate that two guards were posted at the door to the lab. They had no intention of gaining access that way. Flayson stayed to watch the guards as Argus and Vila went back along the corridor to a junction and down another corridor looking for a specific office.

Room 1210. They found their objective and Vila went to work on the lock.

New Federation facilities no longer had easily accessible maintenance tunnels large enough for human access. The small passageways could only be traversed by small maintenance drones. At intervals there were movement detectors which were on a completely different system from the security cameras. The section of tunnel between Room 1210 and Level 5 Security just happened to be between detectors.

Once they gained access to the room Argus slid open the ventilation screen giving access to the maintenance tunnel and put in their own roverbot. With the versatile hand-unit they would be able to control its movements and break into the secure lab area. The group's objective was to collect samples and allow Tess to access the closed network inside the lab. It was not connected to the main information system so direct physical access was required.

"This is too easy," Vila whispered to his companion, "I have a bad feeling." He had broken into Federation facilities with Blake and the _Scorpio_ crews in the past and things never went this smoothly. The ease of the operation so far was a sure sign something was seriously wrong.

"Then let's get this over with so we can get out of here. Watch the door, "Argus ordered him.

_Vila's "bad feeling" must be contagious, or I'm getting an uneasy feeling too. _The rebel leader thought Vila was already nervous enough for all of them. He focused on the task at hand. Flayson was on look-out and would warn them if danger was approaching.

While Argus concentrated on maneuvering the robot, Vila went to the door and checked the corridor. Nothing. He went down the corridor to check-in with Flayson, and nearly stumbled into the arms of Federation security troops. Only quick reflexes made it possible for him to avoid detection. The security troops were in the process of taking down Flayson, there was nothing he could do to save him.

He had to warn Argus. Vila backed away quietly; his heart was pounding so loudly he wondered that the Federation troops didn't hear him. He went back down to the junction. A pulse rifle blast sounded followed by two muted shots in quick succession. Sounds of struggling came from the direction of Room 1210.

_Damn._ They had Argus too. _Time to get out of here_.

There was no way to know if Tess's group had been captured too. They were at the far side of the complex. The standing order was to go back to the shuttle if anything went wrong. The scout vehicle had specially adapted boosters to break away from the planet's gravity quickly and special shielding to withstand the additional pressure on the hull.

Vila's last action before leaving the building was to send an emergency burst signal to warn the others get out and for the pick-up cruiser to go on alert.

**********

Jenna was ready the instant the signal was received. She would not power up the main thrusters until the last possible second. The ship was still "invisible" to the planetary defenses but main thrusters blasting online would be hard to miss. The cruiser's scanners did not detect any ship movement in the vicinity.

She wished she knew what had happened but there was no time to worry about that now.

One blip. From the speed they were leaving the planet, Jenna knew it was the scout shuttle. Thirty seconds later there were four more blips. Damn, those were most likely Federation pursuit ships. It was almost impossible to pick up the shuttle now.

Almost.

Jenna wish it had not come down to this, she was going to attempt a risky maneuver which had never been tried. The speed of the shuttle and the difficulty of firing weapons while in planetary burn would give them one chance. They had a window of two minutes before the Federation ships were within firing range. She signaled the shuttle to cut engines the moment they left the planet's atmosphere.

Being a former pirate ship _The Carver_, had been equipped with a powerful tractor beam. Jenna would have to direct the ship to go into a controlled dive and judge the speed and trajectory of the shuttle exactly if this were to work. The cruiser captain Sovan, would have to adjust the tractor beam strength enough to slow down the shuttle to a virtual standstill without tearing the shuttle apart and killing the occupants. Pirates were very creative with the use of tractor beams.

**********

_Careless humans. _They had walked into the trap on their own without any additional help. The activities of the group had been tracked since the day in Tess's apartment in Commerce City. Humans were such limited creatures, but the abilities of the cruiser pilot had drawn its attention; there was an intuitiveness here it did not understand. The odds had been extremely low for escape, but the skills of the pilot had gotten them away. There was an undisciplined brilliance in the handling of the ship it recognized. Jenna Stannis. In identifying her, it had achieved another of its unfathomable goals.

The pieces were now in place for the next phase of its plans. It had been responsible for the accidental leak in security which revealed the location of the research for the new techno-virus. That had not been the original plan, but its schedule had to be moved up because of the introduction of a new factor. There had been a high risk factor in the operation but there was an urgency now. The finding of the members of the old _Liberator_ crew had increased the percentage of the success of the plan.

One more thing to do.

**********

On the former pirate ship speeding away from the Singoa system Vila was breathing a sigh of relief. They had escaped, just barely; but had lost Argus and Flayson. They were either dead or in Federation hands which was infinitely worse.

Vila was sore all over from the tractor beam maneuver and his head hurt from a mild concussion. Suddenly a sharp pain emanated from his lower back.

Ow. He attributed the pain as another injury to join the other ones he was suffering from. What he did not know was that the tracer in his back had just been shorted out.

**********

Prisoner A5428 was curious, for the first time since his capture he had been allowed more than a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep. He was still very tired but no longer at the edge of complete exhaustion; this was a new tactic.

_What new mistakes are they going to make?_

He was shackled to a chair in interrogation room two. As usual two guards were posted by the door and a medtech was standing nearby.

A stranger in a dark blue outfit entered the room with two interrogators, the prisoner did not recognize him. The unidentified man put a case on the table.

"How are you feeling Avon?"

The voice, Avon recognized it from the chess game they had tried to force on him.

"Are we on a first-name basis now?" The Centre interrogators and guards always referred to him by his prison identifier. The only person who ever referred to him by name here was Servalan.

Sester smiled at the man's reply. "You can call me Sester."

This was definitely a new tactic.

"And what do your enemies call you?"

Sester laughed; laughter was an odd sound in this place. The SDC Controller had refused to reduce the level of drugs they normally used on the prisoner but Sester hoped that the increased rest would help his concentration. Even in a heavily drug-induced state the few moves during the aborted game had confirmed the psychostrategist's assessment. This man was a worthy opponent; it would be a shame to break him.

"I'm not a torturer like these fine gentlemen, " Sester suppressed a smile at the interrogators' reaction. "I'm a specialist, I specialize in games."

_A specialist. _Avon remembered that someone else had called himself that once in this place. Avon had ended up killing him. The analyst had not missed the tension between this man and the interrogators.

Sester opened up the case and pulled out an old marble chess set and a holo-timer.

Setting up the pieces he said, "The recreational facilities in this Centre are appallingly poor. Did you know that they don't even have a chess set? I had to bring my own."

_Chess again. _The man was supremely confident and arrogant and he appeared to be enjoying himself. _At least this is interesting. _Avon was curious. Instinct told him that the man was highly dangerous, but he only trusted facts not instinct.

From the psych-profile he had completed on Avon, Sester knew that the analyst would be suspicious and cautious but would he be able to resist the challenge.

"Release his right hand, " he told the interrogators. They hesitated but followed his command.

Freedom of movement was a novelty. Avon flexed his wrist painfully; there were fresh wounds and barely healed scars. He moved slowly both because of the soreness and because the interrogators were on the alert with their clubs. There was a hint of a smile on Avon's face; even partially bound, physically incapacitated and drugged, they were still wary of him.

"I don't often find a player who provides a challenge, " continued Sester.

"You must not be looking hard enough."

"Do you think you can beat me?"

"Don't try to manipulate me Sester."

"You're right, " Sester smiled. Looking briefly at the interrogators he added, "Such tactics only work on inferior minds. I apologize. I promise that no pain will be involved this time if you play. You can trust me, I will never lie to you, I do not need to."

"What is your agenda?"

Sester nodded. "Direct and to the point, good; we need no pretense between us. My goal is to break you."

The two men's eyes locked, the gauntlet had been thrown down; they understood each other.

"A game?" Sester asked.

Avon evaluated the situation, this would be their first battle. He had never lost, not even to the best chess computers, he nodded. It would be useful to find out what kind of opponent the man would be.

Watching the two of them playing was like watching two masters at work. The others in the room did not fully comprehend the level at which the opponents were playing; they only saw the game with the pieces being moved along the board but there was a deeper game being played.

Partway through, Avon realized what Sester was doing. His instincts had been correct, this was a highly dangerous man, a genius. Sester was taking his measure in the playing of the game, just as he was doing. Avon could not afford that, not when the other man held all the cards.

Avon began to adjust his strategy, with his genius Sester would see it right away; there was no helping that, but at least the man would not learn anything more.

Sester laughed and stopped. "We're at an impasse, aren't we?" The physical chess game was nowhere near a conclusion but they both recognized it would go no further.

"Yes, you are." Avon smiled inwardly, he knew what Sester was now, the man was a psychostrategist.

**********

"Run a full system diagnostic." Tarvin ordered the Commander Technician in charge of the tracer system. They were no longer receiving signals from Vila Restal's tracker. The tracker along with the ASP spy program had been instrumental in helping them discover the rebel's plans to infiltrate the Federation Medical Research Facility on Tingash. The trap had been perfect and they had succeeded in capturing a key rebel leader. Argus was already being transported to the Special Detention Centre on Earth.

Vila had been allowed to escape; he was proving to be a very useful tool but now there was a glitch and they were in danger of losing this valuable asset.

**********

Argus regained consciousness but did not open his eyes. Using his other senses, he tried to get his bearings. It was a habit he had acquired as part of his military training. It had been a pitiless course involving resistance training when captured by the enemy. Regimes that ruled by force were good at training their elite military forces.

_I never thought I would have a reason to thank the Federation. _It was ironic that he would be using their own training to fight them now.

He recognized the steady hum of a ship's engines; the air had the flatness which was consistent with a ship's air filtration system. He seemed to be in a small confined space. Other than the sound of his own breathing, there were no other noises. He could feel tight straps across his chest, torso, legs and arms, restricting his movement. Various bruises caused discomfort, especially with the tightness of the restraints.

Room 1210. He remembered. Some indecipherable sound, an inexplicable instinct had caused him to spin around and draw his pulse gun. He had gotten off one shot, a Federation assault soldier fell; then they tried to shoot him with stun guns. He dove behind a desk but one of the shots had hit him in the arm and he had dropped his weapon. They went after him, that had resulted in the bruises. He didn't have a chance, they had been ready for him; it had been a trap. He hoped the others got out.

Argus opened his eyes, he had been correct, it was the brig of a Federation assault craft. He was familiar with these, sometimes his commando group been assigned them as quarters when the ship was crowded with troops on their way to some operations theatre.

He was strapped down to a metal bed. It was hard and uncomfortable, but he had slept on worse. He tested the bonds, they were secure and there was a security camera trained on him.

_Well, they know I'm awake. _He wondered if that would initiate some action on the part of his captors.

The Federation troops had been waiting for them, that much was clear. Had the rebels been betrayed? Had someone been careless?

No one had spoken to him yet. There had been no demands, no questions and now they were transporting him to some unknown destination.

**********

That unknown destination was the Federation Special Detention Centre. Argus had heard of this place before, it was not a good place to be.

"Your name is Drel Argus. You are the leader of a criminal element that seeks to destroy the peace and order of the Federation. You will tell us who the traitors are in the command ranks of the Federation military forces."

With that declaration the torture had begun.

The physical beatings he could endure. He often fought back, which made it worse on himself but felt good when he was able to flatten a few of his torturers. He was in top physical condition and much more trained and experienced in hand-to-hand combat, even with his hands bound behind him.

After awhile the beatings finally wore him down to the point he could no longer fight, then the real torture began.

They asked him the same questions repeatedly. He could even hear them in his sleep, that is if they allowed him to sleep, which was rarely. He maintained a stony silence.

They only seemed to want to know who his high-level Federation military contacts were. There were no questions about the rest of the rebel group; this in itself was troubling.

_Did they get the rest of the team? Is that why they're not asking me about the others?_

There was no one to ask. Other than the interrogators, the guards and the medtechs, he did not see anyone else. Occasionally he could hear the screams of the other prisoners.

_At least I'm not alone._ Somehow that was a comforting thought in the isolation, but he didn't recognize any of their voices. He passed each day in a fog of pain and exhaustion punctuated by droning voices asking the same questions over and over.

They were just starting with the drugs and the psych sessions, these were the worst. Even with his resistance training, he knew he could not hold out for long. It was becoming increasingly difficult to focus his mind enough to fight their tactics.

With the advanced interrogation techniques everyone broke eventually, that was what they had been told in their training; it was only a matter of when. The training only served to hold it off as long as possible.

Unfortunately these interrogators were very good.


	6. Chapter 6

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Six

Argus's hand-held unit activated; it was receiving a burst transmission from Unit Two. They pored over details of the route they had just received and the potential hazards.

_You're good. I give you that, _Vila thought as Argus went over their tactical strategy.

_All I ask is that you don't get us killed. Nothing beats not getting killed._

"Ready Vila?"

"Would it make a difference if I said no?"

"No." If he had allowed himself to relax, Argus would have grinned at the thief's characteristic lack of enthusiasm for danger but in operations mode the rebel leader had no sense of humour. He knew that the thief always came through despite his other failings.

Vila grumbled under his breath, "Then why did you ask?"

"Flayson?"

"Ready."

"Time to go."

Checking that the corridor was clear they exited the supply room. It was the night cycle at the facility; other than guards at their assigned stations and the odd patrol all should be quiet.

As Unit One advanced through the facility avoiding the various patrols, Tess jumped the surveillance monitors along their route; looping just enough to present blank corridors without raising alarms. Tess was perspiring; this was harder than expected. The active sweeping of the system done to detect tampering was leaving less of a window than expected; there was no margin for error.

She was doing brilliantly but unfortunately with her attention fully occupied, there were several passive detector points which went unnoticed.

Unit One had reached the corridor around the corner from the Level Five Security access door. Argus held up two fingers to indicate that two guards were posted at the door to the lab. They had no intention of gaining access that way. Flayson stayed to watch the guards as Argus and Vila went back along the corridor to a junction and down another corridor looking for a specific office.

Room 1210. They found their objective and Vila went to work on the lock.

New Federation facilities no longer had easily accessible maintenance tunnels large enough for human access. The small passageways could only be traversed by small maintenance drones. At intervals there were movement detectors which were on a completely different system from the security cameras. The section of tunnel between Room 1210 and Level 5 Security just happened to be between detectors.

Once they gained access to the room Argus slid open the ventilation screen giving access to the maintenance tunnel and put in their own roverbot. With the versatile hand-unit they would be able to control its movements and break into the secure lab area. The group's objective was to collect samples and allow Tess to access the closed network inside the lab. It was not connected to the main information system so direct physical access was required.

"This is too easy," Vila whispered to his companion, "I have a bad feeling." He had broken into Federation facilities with Blake and the _Scorpio_ crews in the past and things never went this smoothly. The ease of the operation so far was a sure sign something was seriously wrong.

"Then let's get this over with so we can get out of here. Watch the door, "Argus ordered him.

_Vila's "bad feeling" must be contagious, or I'm getting an uneasy feeling too. _The rebel leader thought Vila was already nervous enough for all of them. He focused on the task at hand. Flayson was on look-out and would warn them if danger was approaching.

While Argus concentrated on maneuvering the robot, Vila went to the door and checked the corridor. Nothing. He went down the corridor to check-in with Flayson, and nearly stumbled into the arms of Federation security troops. Only quick reflexes made it possible for him to avoid detection. The security troops were in the process of taking down Flayson, there was nothing he could do to save him.

He had to warn Argus. Vila backed away quietly; his heart was pounding so loudly he wondered that the Federation troops didn't hear him. He went back down to the junction. A pulse rifle blast sounded followed by two muted shots in quick succession. Sounds of struggling came from the direction of Room 1210.

_Damn._ They had Argus too. _Time to get out of here_.

There was no way to know if Tess's group had been captured too. They were at the far side of the complex. The standing order was to go back to the shuttle if anything went wrong. The scout vehicle had specially adapted boosters to break away from the planet's gravity quickly and special shielding to withstand the additional pressure on the hull.

Vila's last action before leaving the building was to send an emergency burst signal to warn the others get out and for the pick-up cruiser to go on alert.

* * *

Jenna was ready the instant the signal was received. She would not power up the main thrusters until the last possible second. The ship was still "invisible" to the planetary defenses but main thrusters blasting online would be hard to miss. The cruiser's scanners did not detect any ship movement in the vicinity.

She wished she knew what had happened but there was no time to worry about that now.

One blip. From the speed they were leaving the planet, Jenna knew it was the scout shuttle. Thirty seconds later there were four more blips. Damn, those were most likely Federation pursuit ships. It was almost impossible to pick up the shuttle now.

Almost.

Jenna wish it had not come down to this, she was going to attempt a risky maneuver which had never been tried. The speed of the shuttle and the difficulty of firing weapons while in planetary burn would give them one chance. They had a window of two minutes before the Federation ships were within firing range. She signaled the shuttle to cut engines the moment they left the planet's atmosphere.

Being a former pirate ship _The Carver_, had been equipped with a powerful tractor beam. Jenna would have to direct the ship to go into a controlled dive and judge the speed and trajectory of the shuttle exactly if this were to work. The cruiser captain Sovan, would have to adjust the tractor beam strength enough to slow down the shuttle to a virtual standstill without tearing the shuttle apart and killing the occupants. Pirates were very creative with the use of tractor beams.

* * *

_Careless humans. _They had walked into the trap on their own without any additional help. The activities of the group had been tracked since the day in Tess's apartment in Commerce City. Humans were such limited creatures, but the abilities of the cruiser pilot had drawn its attention; there was an intuitiveness here it did not understand. The odds had been extremely low for escape, but the skills of the pilot had gotten them away. There was an undisciplined brilliance in the handling of the ship it recognized. Jenna Stannis. In identifying her, it had achieved another of its unfathomable goals.

The pieces were now in place for the next phase of its plans. It had been responsible for the accidental leak in security which revealed the location of the research for the new techno-virus. That had not been the original plan, but its schedule had to be moved up because of the introduction of a new factor. There had been a high risk factor in the operation but there was an urgency now. The finding of the members of the old _Liberator_ crew had increased the percentage of the success of the plan.

One more thing to do.

* * *

On the former pirate ship speeding away from the Singoa system Vila was breathing a sigh of relief. They had escaped, just barely; but had lost Argus and Flayson. They were either dead or in Federation hands which was infinitely worse.

Vila was sore all over from the tractor beam maneuver and his head hurt from a mild concussion. Suddenly a sharp pain emanated from his lower back.

Ow. He attributed the pain as another injury to join the other ones he was suffering from. What he did not know was that the tracer in his back had just been shorted out.

* * *

Prisoner A5428 was curious, for the first time since his capture he had been allowed more than a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep. He was still very tired but no longer at the edge of complete exhaustion; this was a new tactic.

_What new mistakes are they going to make?_

He was shackled to a chair in interrogation room two. As usual two guards were posted by the door and a medtech was standing nearby.

A stranger in a dark blue outfit entered the room with two interrogators, the prisoner did not recognize him. The unidentified man put a case on the table.

"How are you feeling Avon?"

The voice, Avon recognized it from the chess game they had tried to force on him.

"Are we on a first-name basis now?" The Centre interrogators and guards always referred to him by his prison identifier. The only person who ever referred to him by name here was Servalan.

Sester smiled at the man's reply. "You can call me Sester."

This was definitely a new tactic.

"And what do your enemies call you?"

Sester laughed; laughter was an odd sound in this place. The SDC Controller had refused to reduce the level of drugs they normally used on the prisoner but Sester hoped that the increased rest would help his concentration. Even in a heavily drug-induced state the few moves during the aborted game had confirmed the psychostrategist's assessment. This man was a worthy opponent; it would be a shame to break him.

"I'm not a torturer like these fine gentlemen, " Sester suppressed a smile at the interrogators' reaction. "I'm a specialist, I specialize in games."

_A specialist. _Avon remembered that someone else had called himself that once in this place. Avon had ended up killing him. The analyst had not missed the tension between this man and the interrogators.

Sester opened up the case and pulled out an old marble chess set and a holo-timer.

Setting up the pieces he said, "The recreational facilities in this Centre are appallingly poor. Did you know that they don't even have a chess set? I had to bring my own."

_Chess again. _The man was supremely confident and arrogant and he appeared to be enjoying himself. _At least this is interesting. _Avon was curious. Instinct told him that the man was highly dangerous, but he only trusted facts not instinct.

From the psych-profile he had completed on Avon, Sester knew that the analyst would be suspicious and cautious but would he be able to resist the challenge.

"Release his right hand, " he told the interrogators. They hesitated but followed his command.

Freedom of movement was a novelty. Avon flexed his wrist painfully; there were fresh wounds and barely healed scars. He moved slowly both because of the soreness and because the interrogators were on the alert with their clubs. There was a hint of a smile on Avon's face; even partially bound, physically incapacitated and drugged, they were still wary of him.

"I don't often find a player who provides a challenge, " continued Sester.

"You must not be looking hard enough."

"Do you think you can beat me?"

"Don't try to manipulate me Sester."

"You're right, " Sester smiled. Looking briefly at the interrogators he added, "Such tactics only work on inferior minds. I apologize. I promise that no pain will be involved this time if you play. You can trust me, I will never lie to you, I do not need to."

"What is your agenda?"

Sester nodded. "Direct and to the point, good; we need no pretense between us. My goal is to break you."

The two men's eyes locked, the gauntlet had been thrown down; they understood each other.

"A game?" Sester asked.

Avon evaluated the situation, this would be their first battle. He had never lost, not even to the best chess computers, he nodded. It would be useful to find out what kind of opponent the man would be.

Watching the two of them playing was like watching two masters at work. The others in the room did not fully comprehend the level at which the opponents were playing; they only saw the game with the pieces being moved along the board but there was a deeper game being played.

Partway through, Avon realized what Sester was doing. His instincts had been correct, this was a highly dangerous man, a genius. Sester was taking his measure in the playing of the game, just as he was doing. Avon could not afford that, not when the other man held all the cards.

Avon began to adjust his strategy, with his genius Sester would see it right away; there was no helping that, but at least the man would not learn anything more.

Sester laughed and stopped. "We're at an impasse, aren't we?" The physical chess game was nowhere near a conclusion but they both recognized it would go no further.

"Yes, you are." Avon smiled inwardly, he knew what Sester was now, the man was a psychostrategist.

* * *

"Run a full system diagnostic." Tarvin ordered the Commander Technician in charge of the tracer system. They were no longer receiving signals from Vila Restal's tracker. The tracker along with the ASP spy program had been instrumental in helping them discover the rebel's plans to infiltrate the Federation Medical Research Facility on Tingash. The trap had been perfect and they had succeeded in capturing a key rebel leader. Argus was already being transported to the Special Detention Centre on Earth.

Vila had been allowed to escape; he was proving to be a very useful tool but now there was a glitch and they were in danger of losing this valuable asset.

* * *

Argus regained consciousness but did not open his eyes. Using his other senses, he tried to get his bearings. It was a habit he had acquired as part of his military training. It had been a pitiless course involving resistance training when captured by the enemy. Regimes that ruled by force were good at training their elite military forces.

_I never thought I would have a reason to thank the Federation. _It was ironic that he would be using their own training to fight them now.

He recognized the steady hum of a ship's engines; the air had the flatness which was consistent with a ship's air filtration system. He seemed to be in a small confined space. Other than the sound of his own breathing, there were no other noises. He could feel tight straps across his chest, torso, legs and arms, restricting his movement. Various bruises caused discomfort, especially with the tightness of the restraints.

Room 1210. He remembered. Some indecipherable sound, an inexplicable instinct had caused him to spin around and draw his pulse gun. He had gotten off one shot, a Federation assault soldier fell; then they tried to shoot him with stun guns. He dove behind a desk but one of the shots had hit him in the arm and he had dropped his weapon. They went after him, that had resulted in the bruises. He didn't have a chance, they had been ready for him; it had been a trap. He hoped the others got out.

Argus opened his eyes, he had been correct, it was the brig of a Federation assault craft. He was familiar with these, sometimes his commando group been assigned them as quarters when the ship was crowded with troops on their way to some operations theatre.

He was strapped down to a metal bed. It was hard and uncomfortable, but he had slept on worse. He tested the bonds, they were secure and there was a security camera trained on him.

_Well, they know I'm awake. _He wondered if that would initiate some action on the part of his captors.

The Federation troops had been waiting for them, that much was clear. Had the rebels been betrayed? Had someone been careless?

No one had spoken to him yet. There had been no demands, no questions and now they were transporting him to some unknown destination.

* * *

That unknown destination was the Federation Special Detention Centre. Argus had heard of this place before, it was not a good place to be.

"Your name is Drel Argus. You are the leader of a criminal element that seeks to destroy the peace and order of the Federation. You will tell us who the traitors are in the command ranks of the Federation military forces."

With that declaration the torture had begun.

The physical beatings he could endure. He often fought back, which made it worse on himself but felt good when he was able to flatten a few of his torturers. He was in top physical condition and much more trained and experienced in hand-to-hand combat, even with his hands bound behind him.

After awhile the beatings finally wore him down to the point he could no longer fight, then the real torture began.

They asked him the same questions repeatedly. He could even hear them in his sleep, that is if they allowed him to sleep, which was rarely. He maintained a stony silence.

They only seemed to want to know who his high-level Federation military contacts were. There were no questions about the rest of the rebel group; this in itself was troubling.

_Did they get the rest of the team? Is that why they're not asking me about the others?_

There was no one to ask. Other than the interrogators, the guards and the medtechs, he did not see anyone else. Occasionally he could hear the screams of the other prisoners.

_At least I'm not alone._ Somehow that was a comforting thought in the isolation, but he didn't recognize any of their voices. He passed each day in a fog of pain and exhaustion punctuated by droning voices asking the same questions over and over.

They were just starting with the drugs and the psych sessions, these were the worst. Even with his resistance training, he knew he could not hold out for long. It was becoming increasingly difficult to focus his mind enough to fight their tactics.

With the advanced interrogation techniques everyone broke eventually, that was what they had been told in their training; it was only a matter of when. The training only served to hold it off as long as possible.

Unfortunately these interrogators were very good.


	7. Chapter 7

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Seven

The dejected rebels were meeting in the underground level of an apartment complex in the crowded quarter of the West Euro Dome on Earth. Two additional rebel groups had joined them, all of them were clearly ex-Federation military.

"We can't afford to wait any longer, " Tess told them. "They've moved him to the Special Detention Centre."

Vila knew exactly what that meant, Avon had spent five torturous days there waiting for Shrinker to show up. It was suicide to enter the heavily secured facility, not unless they had teleport capability, which they didn't. He had warned Jenna of the risks.

"We are all as concerned about him as you are Tess but this has to be planned carefully. It's a Triple-A security installation." Jenna knew they couldn't wait any longer. She also knew the likelihood of casualties in the operation they were about to undertake but Argus had information about several key Federation Military personnel working with the rebels. It would be a great blow to the movement if that information fell into Federation hands.

The information that Argus had been moved to the Special Detention Centre showed that the security forces most likely knew who he was. They were all aware that even with his training everyone broke eventually; it was only a matter of time. They had to get him out before that, or kill him. That was at the back of everyone's mind, except Tess.

The rebels had arranged for various diversions to tie up Federation security forces in the building. It was going to be a quick paramilitary-type strike. The other two rebel groups had all been members in various Federation quick strike forces; no subtlety was required, just precision, decisiveness and ruthlessness.

* * *

The interrogation cycles had resumed for prisoner A5428. There was a difference though, the psych and mind-torture cycles were getting worse. The prisoner guessed why, Sester had taken charge of those sessions. 

Occasionally Sester would have a conversation session with him, Avon knew it was in order to gauge the effectiveness of the treatments. The politeness and humour of the psychostrategist made what he was doing even more terrifying.

Psychostrategists were held in fear and awe in the Federation worlds. They were brilliant puppet-masters who did not think of human beings as people, only as pieces to be manipulated in a game. Given full information, they could accurately predict the behavior of any individual in a given circumstance. They had been very useful in the Federation's bid to regain control of it's empire.

"How are you feeling Avon?" Sester asked.

It always began with that.

Avon could barely answer this time, pain prevented it; he was still bleeding from the last session. The medical unit had only been partially healing his wounds, it had been one of the change of orders in the past two weeks. He was in interrogation room two again, the one with the table and two chairs and nothing else.

"Service leaves a lot to be desired, " he replied. The psychostrategist could barely hear him.

_The fools. _Sester was annoyed at the medical personnel who had tended to the prisoner after his most recent torture session. The prisoner was in no shape for a prolonged conversation, he would have to be brought back to the med unit.

Working on the prisoner over the past few weeks, Sester had not been disappointed. Avon was truly a challenge worthy of his intellect and skills. The strategist enjoyed the task, but he knew he would not enjoy the end; when one served the Federation President, distasteful tasks were the norm.

As Sester put the pieces of his psych-strategy together, he suspected that he was working from incomplete information. Psychostrategists only made mistakes when they were not given all the facts.

The key was what happened on Gauda Prime, there was a dark secret there. He wondered how long Servalan would allow him to live if he began to question the official story or more likely was able to piece together what really happened.

"You're not the sacrificial kind Avon why are you continuing to hold out? You have nothing to gain."

"And what do you have to gain?" Avon challenged. He tensed in pain and started coughing blood. The medtech approached to check his condition.

"Bring the prisoner back to the med unit. Now. Tell them to a better job this time_, " _Sester ordered.

* * *

The medtech was perplexed as the guards dragged the prisoner back to the medical services wing. Normally time in the healing tanks would leave the prisoners in much better condition than this. Even with the new orders, he should have been left in a fit enough state to be questioned. Perhaps a malfunction in the instruments, it would have to be checked. 

The lead guard coordinated the clearing of the corridors ahead of them. There were only two prisoners in the med wing currently, both in enclosed healing tanks. That was fine, the medical personnel would make sure they would not be removed from the tanks until prisoner A5428 was locked into his.

* * *

The final countdown had started, each of the five rebel units was poised to strike the moment the diversions began. 

The Federation Special Detention Centre did not keep records of prisoner identity on their computer network. They were referred to by the Centre identifier coded into the prisoners' clothes. The Centre's Controller and Sub-Controllers were the only ones who knew where the information regarding the prisoner's identities was kept. The rebels had not been able to uncover the location of the information but they could not wait any longer. As a result they would attempt the riskier plan of searching key areas instead of a precision strike.

With much protest Vila had joined the group headed towards the prisoner cells. The second unit was ready to hit the interrogation rooms. Jenna was with the third unit, tasked to check the medical unit. Tess's tech unit would blind the scanners, disable the security computers and isolate all communication channels. She would open up all the doors in the three areas they were interested in and seal the rest. The fifth unit was watching the escape points to ensure they were clear.

* * *

The doctor had finished his examination of prisoner A5428 and the medtechs had just put him in the healing tank when the Center alarms went off and the doors opened without warning. Before the guards had a chance to react black-hooded rebels burst in and disabled them. 

"No one move, " Prake, the rebel unit leader commanded the medtechs. Prake was a former member of the hated Federation Death Squads. Two quick shots from his pulse rifle brought down the doctor who was trying to press the emergency call button.

"I said, don't move, " Prake stressed again. Nodding to his men he ordered, "Check the healing units." Jenna and two other rebels moved towards the tanks while one stayed by the door.

Each of the rebels opened a closed healing tank; their objective was achieved, Argus was in one of them. The rebel unit leader sent a burst signal indicating the found status. The other teams would stop their searches and concentrate on providing more distraction as they started moving towards their escape points.

When Jenna had opened up her tank, she could not believe her eyes. "Avon!" she had called out in shock. There was no response, the analyst's eyes remained closed. The others were busy helping Argus out of his tank at the far end of the room.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked the medtech nearby.

"He passed out on his way here, he's unconscious."

"Get him out of there, " she ordered him.

"He shouldn't be moved."

"What are you doing beta two? We're ready to go_, " _rebel unit leader asked. The others had removed Argus from his tank and he was standing unsteadily on his feet.

"We have to take this one too, " Jenna told Prake.

"We don't have time, stick to the plan."

"This is Kerr Avon." They all stopped as the information registered.

"Alright. You two get him out of there." Two of the rebels came over to help her.

"You can't." The medtech blocked their way.

"Yes we can, " one of them pointed his pulse rifle to the man's head.

"You'll kill him if you take him with you now. Look."

Jenna looked at the life sensors the medtech was pointing to, he was right. Jenna was appalled at what she was seeing, but this was Avon the Betrayer, he deserved everything that happened to him. As she had many times in the last few years, Jenna wished they had a teleport.

"How long would it take to get him into good enough shape to be moved?"

"I can do a temporary fix for now, it'll take five minutes but you have to take me with you."

"We don't have a choice, " Jenna told the rebel leader. Avon was a valuable find, even more valuable than Argus. Prake nodded in agreement. The medtech started working on Avon.

Speaking into his wristcomm, the leader broke communication silence and passed on the information to go to one of the alternate plans He repeated the command codes.

One of the other units would be headed towards the med ward to give them aid. One would start planting explosive charges along their route and the adjacent corridors. Tess would be facilitating the new plan by controlling access to the med wing.

Avon moaned and opened his eyes, an alarm was going off and his head hurt. Something was happening; he tried to focus. The medtech applied an anesthetic patch to the patient's neck.

"Why did you do that?" Jenna reached out to stop his hand.

"He's in a lot of pain and he won't be able to stand. Conscious he will be no help to you, he will have to be carried out of here."

"Fine."

They had been hearing sounds of laser and pulse rifle fire, but now it was coming closer.

"We have to go," Prake hurried them.

"He's ready, " reported the helpful medtech.

They pulled Avon out of the healing tank and one of the rebels, a stocky man with broad shoulders, lifted him over his shoulder.

"Let's go."

The escape went according to the alternate plan. They suffered several casualties, one fatal and a score of minor injuries. Sato, the engineer from Tess's group had saved her life at the expense of his own when the medtech, who had asked to accompany them, deliberately led them into a trap. The medtech was also killed in the cross-fire with Federation troops. Except for the casualties, which were expected, the operation was a complete success.

* * *

Servalan was furious, they had lost Avon. She ordered West Euro Dome and the three adjacent domes to be put under immediate lockdown and for a massive search to be conducted. The cover story would be the escape of several dangerous serial killers. 


	8. Chapter 8

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Eight

The rebel unit leaders were meeting for a debriefing after the operation. They were in the crypt of an old religious building outside the West Euro Dome, it was their backup safe house. This secondary location was still in the process of being setup and only had limited medical equipment and supplies. Access to their main safe house in the city had been blocked and a massive manhunt was being conducted to search for the rebels and their rescued prisoners. Scores of people had been pulled in for questioning by Federation security.

Argus had cleaned himself up and was leading the meeting. He looked tired and his face was pale. There was a big bruise on his chin, one eye was swollen and he was favouring one leg when he walked but no one dared tell him that he should be resting. They all knew what he was like when he was in this mood and no one dared to get in his way.

"How many did we lose?" he asked.

Prake, the leader of unit two replied, "One killed, three injured. All three should recover but we're going to need better medical facilities to take care of them."

"It was too high a price, you should have just killed me."

"You're not in the Federation anymore, we take care of our own, " Jenna reminded him, "and we gained a very valuable prize."

"How long before we can question him?" Ander, the brown-haired leader of unit three asked. He was a former sergeant in the Federation assault groups.

They were all eager to get their hands on the man who killed Blake and betrayed the _Scorpio_ crew.

"Dr. Alberay is examining him now, " she replied. "He will have a report later."

"What's the status in the WE Dome?" Argus asked.

"Security is on a level four alert, " Jenna responded, level four was the highest alert level. "There's a massive search going on for us. All transportation access ports have been shut down. Fortunately, we got all our people out just as the curfew went into effect."

"Are all the security monitors in place?" Argus asked Ander, who was in charge of the safe house security setup.

"Yes. All of the alerts are in place. There are additional security cameras on the roof and we've expanded the range of the sensor grid."

Argus was operating on pure adrenaline. He should be resting after his ordeal in the Federation Special Detention Centre but he was a man who could not let go when his people were in danger, especially when that danger was because of him.

He felt a stab of guilt. He had resolved never to allow others to die for him again.

_Not again. There have been too many already and now there is one more._

He could not sleep yet. There was still too much to do.

* * *

Vila had been astounded when he found out that they had captured Avon. It seemed as if the rumour that the Federation had turned on the traitor was true. Vila's head had started hurting the moment he saw his old crewmate and leader. Avon looked terrible.

"Has he woken up yet_?"_ Jenna asked Vila as she joined him. She was accompanied by Argus and Prake, they were there to check on the prisoner.

"Not yet. He's still out, " the rebel unit's doctor replied.

"When can we question him, Dr Alberay?"

"It's not a good idea, he's not in good shape. From his injuries, he has suffered severe torture over an extended period of time. Other than the external injuries, which we can heal there are numerous internal injuries, some fresh, some partially healed, which will take much longer without better medical equipment; and we can't get that right now because of the clamp-down. The rescue from the detention centre did additional internal damage. Even if he heals, it will take a long period of rehabilitation before he will be able to function fully. He is also in an enormous amount of pain so I'm keeping him sedated for now."

"Bring him around, " Argus ordered.

"Alright. I'll just give him a pain blocker."

"No."

Argus had no interest in making the traitor comfortable.

The doctor looked at them. He nodded, he understood what they wanted.

"One other thing, his system was full of drugs; some of them were to intensify pain, some would have made it difficult for him to concentrate, some are advanced psychotropics and hallucinogens of types I am totally unfamiliar with. The reason why I am telling you this is that I don't know what you're going to get when he wakes up. His sense of reality may be severely compromised."

They were all aware of what the Federation could do to people under their control.

"We understand, bring him around, " Jenna told him. Her voice was cold.

The doctor administered another drug and stepped back.

Avon gasped as conscious returned. He struggled to concentrate, fighting against the flood of pain. His last memory was of the sound of pulse and laser rifle bursts.

_Blake!_ Falling. _No. Not Blake. _Something else.

He opened his eyes. Faces floated into view; Vila, Jenna, several faces he did not recognize.

_Jenna?_ He almost laughed, he knew that Jenna was dead. This must be another hypnovision. What was Sester up to? This was too obviously a mistake.

"Avon do you know who I am?" Jenna asked.

"No have we been introduced?" his voice was hoarse.

_Let's see how far we can take _this he thought. The pain was worse than was normal during these sessions, he was struggling to breathe, it was hard to concentrate.

"It's Jenna."

"Jenna, " he asked, sounding perplexed, "do I know you?"

"Put him out again." Jenna instructed the doctor.

Avon's last thought before he drifted into darkness again was _that was too easy. What is he up to_?

"What's wrong with him doctor?"

"I did warn you. There is no telling what they have been doing to his mind."

"Maybe some more pain will help him get his memory back." Prake had the typical single-tracked Federation military mentality. Revenge was foremost on his mind. Revenge for what they all knew Avon had done to Blake.

"That's not going to work. We need a psych specialist to assess the damage done to his mind and recommend a course of treatment, " the doctor told them.

Argus was former military, but being a command-level he was able to see the bigger picture.

"Federation interrogators would not have risked losing the information we are all after. They're too good for that, it still has to be in his mind somewhere. Like the doctor said, we need to understand the situation first, we need to find a psych specialist but because of the hunt going on now we will have to wait." He looked pointedly at Prake and added, "Before then we have to be careful how we treat him, in case we do more damage and risk losing the information."

Prake made a disgusted sound and stalked out. Federation Death Squad members even former ones tended to be difficult.

"We're going to have to be careful, " Jenna told Argus, "Prake is not the only one out there who wants to beat the truth out of him. I must admit, I want to see Avon suffer too, more than any of you could possibly understand; but not until we get the information we need out of him."

Argus nodded, "We'll have to appoint some cool-headed people to guard him. I'll go arrange that now."

Jenna put her hand on his arm. "You're tired, leave that to someone else. You need to rest."

"You know I can't. If the sacrifice of Sato is to mean something, we need this."

_You mean you need this. When will you ever be able to let go of the past?_ Jenna sighed and let him go. Argus reminded her a little of Blake, he always felt responsible for everyone else except himself.

Argus paused at the door, "I promise, I'll get some rest right afterwards." He smiled tiredly and left. Jenna was the only one who ever had any success in getting him to take care of himself.

After Dr Alberay finished tending to the patient and left the room, Jenna asked "What do you think, Vila? Do you think he's faking it? You've been with him longer than any of us."

Vila had been observing quietly throughout the entire exchange. He had mixed thoughts and his head was pounding again.

_Avon the Betrayer._

"I want to kill him; I want him to suffer for what he did to Blake; and Tarrant, Dayna, Soolin, and me but he also saved our lives, dozens of times."

"Mine too, and Blake's; but we always knew what he was. You and I both know, Avon was always in it for Avon first."

"You're right Jenna, but it's hard to see him like this. Avon was always in control. I want him to suffer, but not like this, no one deserves what they did to him."

Vila put his hands to his head, he was in pain again. _Traitor! Betrayer! _

"What's wrong, Vila?" Jenna asked concerned.

"I'm going to lie down, I've got a headache the size of Jupiter."

"Go ask the doctor to give you some medication."

"Maybe I can get him to throw in some soma too, " Vila said as he left.

Jenna smiled. Good old Vila.

She agreed with Vila, it was a shock to see Avon in his current state. He was still in his grey prison coveralls stained with blood, his feet were bare and his hands had been left manacled. His wrists were bruised and had numerous abrasions. From the bio-monitors she had seen at the Detention Centre, she knew that his injuries were many, some were serious and all of them seemed to have been designed to cause pain.

Avon had always been well-dressed and in control. He was tall, strong and arrogant; a match for anyone, including Blake. Vila had once said that if it ever came to a showdown, he would put half his money on Blake, and the other half on Avon.

If Avon had had Blake's morality and compassion, he would have made a powerful leader for the rebel alliance but without it, he was just extremely dangerous. One thing she did not agree on with Vila. Avon deserved everything that happened to him.

Jenna had pledged to follow Blake to the very end. After leaving the _Liberator_, they had fought side-by-side against the scattered Federation forces, secretly building the rebel forces on one border planet after another. They had saved each other's lives countless times when they ran into Federation treachery and now Blake was dead, betrayed by Avon, a man he considered a friend.

She was going to make Avon pay, but not until after they got ORAC, she could wait that long.

* * *

The object of everyone's goal was advancing it's own plans. The rebels had gone underground and off the CompComm grid. They would remain that way as long as the Federation forces on Earth were on high alert. It would have to trace another line through infinity, like it did in finding Blake on Gauda Prime but in order to do that it needed some cause and effect to track.

There was one thing it could do to speed up it's task.

DSV V had sent a signal indicating that it was four Federation standard weeks away from the frontier planetary system of Gauda Prime. Finding it had been brilliant. Avon had surmised that there must have been other ones out there which survived the disruption of Spaceworld in Twelfth Sector and had given standing orders to monitor for them. After 1 years, 9 months, and 5.813 days, ORAC had finally detected a familiar frequency. It was faint, but enough and contact had been established. For a human, Avon was bright. If ORAC had been capable of human emotion, it would have been annoyed that it had not made the assumption itself.

After it's creator Ensor died, Avon was the only human ORAC took seriously.

Without Avon's anti-detector shield it had to be careful as DSV V neared the system.

Since ORAC had been forced to advance it's timetable, the danger level had increased. It had been physically safer for Avon to be in the hands of the Federation interrogators than to be in the hands of the unstable rebels. ORAC had originally scheduled the "rescue" of Avon later. But the introduction of the psychostrategist had changed the nature of the odds. It had to get him out earlier. It took a calculated risk that Vila and Jenna would keep him alive even in the face of the rebel group's anger.


	9. Chapter 9

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Nine

Thugs threw Avon against the wall again, knocking the breath out of him. They turned him around and held him against it as they punched him with their fists.

Even though these rebels wore assorted civilian clothing, there was no mistaking the marks of Federation military on them, they could not fool him. This group was good at inflicting pain, but not as efficient as the interrogators of the Special Detention Centre. He could feel one of his ribs crack, it was easy to do considering his ribs were always in various stages of healing. There did not appear to be a medtech nearby.

This group was emotional, out of control and thus easily triggered.

_Instead of using hypnovisions, you're trying to fool me with fake rebels?_

They released him; he crumpled to the floor and lay coughing and bleeding.

"Tell us what we want to know!" one of them demanded.

"Did they run out of the intelligent thugs?" he asked.

For some reason that made them angrier, they took turns kicking him.

The ones administering the beating were just thugs. There was no subtlety, no plan of attack; their only goal seemed to be to beat him into submission, this was something which the Centre interrogators had realized early on would never work on him. Were they trying to fool him by pretending not to know this?

He was barely conscious when he heard other voices shouting.

'Stop, that's an order!"

'Stop. What do you think you are doing?"

One of the voices sounded like Jenna's. Another was from a man he had identified as Argus. He seemed to be the leader of the group.

A man in civilian clothes bent down and checked him. Medtech; there is always one.

"Get out of here! Now! I'll deal with all of you later, " Argus commanded the amateur torturers, they all filed out.

"You were supposed to guard the door and not let anyone in here, " Jenna was berating the man who was standing guard by the door. " Go. And send Vila in."

"How is he doctor?" asked Argus.

"Any more like this and you won't need me anymore." His meaning was very clear.

"Damn."

_Terrible torturers, good acting. Guess they couldn't find ones that could do both._

They lifted Avon back onto the bed and secured him to it again. He moaned, every movement brought fresh pain.

"Do the best you can doctor."

Jenna and Argus moved off to the corner to allow him Dr. Alberay to work.

"This cannot happen again, " Jenna said angrily.

"I agree, " Argus told her. "I'll contact the 624 Ameras Group to take over here the moment it's safe. We'll take turns watching him until they get here; you, me, Vila, Tess, and Doctor Alberay."

* * *

_A bunch of incompetents_. Servalan was angry, increasingly angry. _The next person had better have good news._

A glitch in the scheduling computer of the busy East Euro Space Port had resulted in at least two dozen freight and civilian transports being released without special security sweeps being conducted over the last standard week. It had been gradual and intermittent, else it would have been spotted earlier. There were now numerous reports of the rebels they were after, being spotted in several adjacent sectors. With Federation security sweeps producing no results on Earth, the likelihood was that they had already escaped off world.

Could it be Avon breaking into the Federation computers? But that was not possible. Avon would not be in good enough shape to do this, not this soon.

Damn. The thoughts that the rebels may have this capability was troubling. She had ordered Central Security to investigate thoroughly and kill anyone they found.

As if that was not bad enough, she had just received word from Tarvin of Central Security that the tracer implanted in Vila had malfunctioned. They would not be able to track the rebels that way either.

The vidcomm buzzed. It was her aide, Corry.

"What is it?" Servalan asked menacingly.

Her aide was used to her moods and was not phased. "Science Commander Latham from Department Four of Medical Research for you Madame President," he informed her.

"Patch him through."

A man dressed in a regular white lab coat with stripes on the collar indicating his rank, appeared on the screen.

"Madame President. I have wonderful news."

_That's fortunate for you._

Latham was an annoyingly naïve scientist who had the enthusiasm of a school boy. If he had not been brilliant in his field and attracted Servalan's attention early on in his career he would never have survived in the Federation ranks. Only Servalan's patronage and protection prevented less competent but more ruthless underlings from climbing over him. He had been placed in charge of the research for the new techno-virus.

"That's nice Science Commander. I am very busy now, what is your news?" No need to encourage him.

"I am sending a coded burst report directly to your terminal. We've had fantastic results with the new item, it exceeds all expectations."

"How programmable is it?"

"That is the current focus of our research but it is more than ready as a substitute for P-50 now."

This was excellent news.

"Good, I am pleased. You have done well Latham." The scientist blushed at the compliment, "Commissioner Bavis of the Cooperation Project will be in touch with you to coordinate deployment."

"Yes, Madame President."

Servalan ended the communication, she knew the perfect place to use it, the troublesome Sector Ten. With the Terra Nostra cutting off the head and the techno-virus taking care of the body, another sector would be embraced into the Federation empire soon.

After ordering her aide to get in touch with Commissioner Bavis, she read the burst report from Latham. A smile lit up her face as she started planning the use of her new bio-weapon.

* * *

Avon returned to consciousness but did not open his eyes. The ever present pain was still there but there were also new sensations. He was still tired, but more rested than he had been in almost a year. The drugs were almost gone from his system; for the first time he could concentrate without struggling. In some ways this was more disturbing; he had to analyze this new development.

It was much easier to allow him to recover physically and work on him mentally and psychologically using the hypno-visions and drugs. The drugs had to disorient him enough to make the visions work. By keeping him drugged at all times, they had been able to manipulate and control his reality to a certain extent but in clearing his system of drugs, they could not confuse his mind enough to make the visions real, particularly with a mind as strong as his was. This was why they had always kept varying levels of drugs in his system.

They had the ability to force simulated memories into his mind and implant emotions; but they could not simulate a mind constantly questioning or calculating, nor could they override a natural tendency towards paranoia. And forcing emotions into someone as normally emotionally cold as he was did not work as well as it did on others. In addition, the drugs made it difficult for the kind of concentration it required to be himself, which was why he had been able to resist the illusions for so long.

They appeared to be trying the opposite strategy now. His mind was clear and he was analyzing.

Physically he was still a mess and very weak. He guessed that they had not been using the healing tanks. It made sense that they would allow him to recover mentally but not physically. It was too dangerous to allow both, at least until they were sure he believed their simulation.

This was a new game; Sester was obviously confident he could beat him on an intellectual level. They would simulate reality by using a controlled reality. In order to beat him, Sester would have to risk a level of authenticity which would be dangerous. Avon smiled, it was a dangerous gamble for them. They wanted to fool him into leading them to ORAC; and he needed them in order to get to ORAC so he could escape, without giving them access to it.

There was one other possible scenario; that they had already succeeded in conditioning him. If that was true, then they had won and he was just going through the motions but would they go to this much trouble if they had? He did have one failsafe, he would have to be very careful. Would they risk allowing him access to the real ORAC or would they use a fake? The failsafe would reveal the truth.

Avon decided to continue his charade of mental confusion. That would frustrate Sester; the strategist would have no choice except to violate or abandon the scenario in order to change the condition Avon had set. In the meantime, it gave Avon time to test the level of reality they were risking. If he was satisfied it was enough for his purposes, then he would start leading them.

_This is going to be an interesting game._

Avon opened his eyes and looked around. He was in an underground location. The bed he was lying on had a wooden frame. _Quaint_. His hands were manacled to posts on either side of the bed. He sighed. He missed freedom of movement.

His clothes had been changed at some point, instead of prison grey coveralls, he was wearing a loose brown shirt and black pants. He could still feel the cuts that the lashes had left on his back from the final torture session before this scenario began. His right shoulder was painfully tender. Shifting his left hand, he winced, the restraints were too tight and his wrists had never been allow to heal. Breathing was painful, but that was nothing new; torturers universally seemed to like breaking ribs. He knew that the internal injuries were still serious and would take even longer to heal than his external ones.

He turned his head to look around, next to the bed seated in a chair sat Vila. The thief was leaning back, asleep. At least they got that right, it was useless having Vila guard anything. Real or otherwise.

The real Vila was dead. He had seen him fall as a Federation pulse rifle blast hit him in the back. Avon shook his head at the memory, the movement triggered a fit of coughing.

"Avon. You're awake."

"Observant as usual Vila."

"How are you feeling?"

"Alive."

"Do you want some water?"

Avon nodded.

There was a jug of water on a table next to the bed; Vila filled a glass. Avon found that he was too weak to move on his own, as he suspected; every movement was painful. In the end they settled for Vila holding his head up so he could take a sip from the glass.

The effort of even that simple movement exhausted him. He closed his eyes and rested.

"Avon. Avon."

Without opening his eyes, Avon replied, "Do I look like I'm resting?"

"Yes. Oh right, sorry."

Vila sat back on the chair. He was confused and his head was starting to hurt again.

Interacting with Avon, they had back slipped into their familiar adversarial banter. It was as if the past year had not occurred. _Betrayer!_

_Well it did and he's going to answer some questions next time. _Vila was resolved.

Avon was also resolved, this was the first time there was a glimmer of a chance that he might regain his freedom.


	10. Chapter 10

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Ten

"How is he doing?" asked Jenna when she took over the watch from Doctor Alberay. They had been guarding Avon for over a week, waiting for the Federation to ease up on the tight security measures so that 624 Group could join them.

"His breathing has improved and his life signs are still weak but stable; he's running a fever. I am running out of medical supplies, but what he really needs is a healing tank."

"Don't worry doctor, the curfew was lifted this morning. We can see to getting you more supplies. Make a list and pass it to Argus, hes sending a team out. I will take the watch from here."

Jenna settled down on the chair. The last few days watching over their prisoner had brought back many memories for her. Many of them ending with her wanting to kill Avon with her own hands.

Federation Security Forces were now concentrating on the adjoining sectors. The rebels did not understand how or why they were doing this, but it helped them greatly. Security was still tight but 624 group would be able to arrive in a few days. _None too soon_, thought Jenna rubbing her neck.

Avon was shifting restlessly on the bed, he was having another nightmare. It was almost as if he was still experiencing torture, even in his dreams. There was no expression on his face, just a physical reaction and his labored breathing, as if he was running away or fighting.

Jenna had no sympathy.

* * *

The nightmare. Surrounded by all the people who had betrayed him; there were too many to count. Each one took turns shooting at him; they were taking their time, prolonging the torture; Anna, Tynus, Keiller. Too many faces. 

Another shot. Blake falling. _No!_ He looked down at the gun in his hands. Then at Blake's body at his feet.

"No!"

Avon woke with a shout. Disoriented, he started struggling ineffectively against the restraints which chained him to the bed and tried to get up but the pain and weakness made it difficult.

Jenna put a hand against his chest, "Don't move Avon, you're going to hurt yourself."

He stopped as his surroundings began to register. He lay back, exhausted from the effort.

"Jenna."

"You know who I am?"

"Of course. What's going on? Why am I restrained?" His voice indicated confusion and anger. As normal, there was no expression on his face.

This was the first time he seemed to recognize her. She asked, "You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

She knew that he would not remember being rescued, since he was unconscious at the time.

"What is the last thing you remember, Avon?"

She could see him concentrating.

"I…don't know. I can't remember." She could hear the strain in his voice. His eyes closed, as if the act of concentrating caused pain.

_What did they do to him?_

Vila was right, it was difficult seeing Avon like this. Jenna shook her head, she could not afford to feel sympathy for the man who killed Blake.

From Avon's periods of conscious interaction with them, it appeared his spirit had not been broken but it was obvious that his body and mind had. Each time he woke, they could not be certain who he would recognize, if at all.

She agreed with Argus, the Federation would not have risked losing the information they were after. The information had to be in his mind somewhere. To get to it, they had to unravel what had been done to him; they needed a psych specialist.

* * *

Avon was only partially acting, waking up from the nightmare had helped facilitate his illusion of mental confusion. He had not expected the nightmares to continue, or to be this bad, not after the drugs had cleared his system but he made it work for his own purposes. 

The pain was real, a real memory. He remembered the psych-torture sessions; each attempt at breaking through the hypnotic drug-induced visions either brought direct stimulation of various pain centres or filling his system with drugs which made him scream.

In building his own counter-scenario, Avon had many experiences to draw from. The Federation interrogators had been very creative. Avon had made a calculated gamble that they did not know what the effect of the removal of the drugs from his system and the limited degree of effectiveness of their treatments would produce; bringing in Sester indicated that they knew the latter.

If they wanted the scenario to progress beyond this, they would have to risk the next level of reality.

"It's alright Avon, don't try, we'll do it another time. Just rest now."

Avon opened his eyes and asked, "Why can I not remember? Why am I restrained? What happened to me?"

"It was for your own good. Just rest now."

Jenna could see in his eyes the familiar cynicism, he did not believe her but he did not say anything. She remembered that Avon rarely felt it necessary to lie. He was secretive, he did not often volunteer information and he did not go out of his way to correct people if they insisted on deluding themselves, but deliberately lying was not part of his character. He dealt in facts. He never made any attempt to disguise his total lack of trust or his open cynicism of most of the human race nor did he ever conceal that his first priority was always his own safety and freedom.

* * *

With the curfew lifted, Dr Alberay contacted an old mentor who held a high position at the Federation Central Clinic. Professor Tarkson was a respected leader in the area of psycho-drug therapy. 

"This is not going to be easy, " Professor Tarkson told the gathered rebel leaders. The psychiatrist had already spoken with the patient several times. He had been shocked when examining Avon. There had been rumours of such treatments going on behind closed Federation doors but to see evidence of it had disturbed him. The patient had a strong mind, but Tarkson did not think the man would ever be whole again, which was just as well, considering what Avon had done and what the rebels had in store for him.

"Is there anything we can do to help him snap out of it Professor, so we can get the information we want?" asked Jenna.

"It's not simply a matter of 'snapping' out of it."

The professor had read Dr Alberay's notes on the drugs found in Avon's system. Scrolling through the medical recorder unit, he told them, "What the Federation psych specialists did to him was highly illegal and caused great damage to his mind. I cannot even guess at the effect of some of the advanced psychotropics which were found in his system. It is clear that the patient's sense of reality is severely compromised. The severe torture would have intensified the effect of the drugs and other treatments they used on him. He experiences difficulty and pain whenever he tries to concentrate past his current condition, this points to at least partial conditioning. Even though his memory and sense of reality have been compromised, his basic character remains intact and his mind is still strong. The information you require is most likely still there but he has buried it so deeply that even he himself cannot access it consciously, that is the only way he could have prevented them from getting what they wanted."

"How can _we_ get the information then?" Tanner, the leader of 624 group asked, he was a former teacher. None of 624 group were ex-military.

"One way would be to undo the conditioning and the damage. It will require similar advanced drugs, intensive therapy over a long period of time and sophisticated mind mapping machines."

"What is the other way, " asked Argus.

"Am to understand you only want him in a good enough state so he can give you the information you want and nothing else?" Tarkson asked.

Jenna replied ruthlessly, "Yes. I know that it is against your professional ethics Professor, but it's necessary."

"Very well, that makes it easier. We have an advantage." Professor Tarkson looked at Jenna and Vila. "Two advantages."

Even though he shared Jenna's sentiments about Avon, something about the professor bothered Argus. The man had accepted this condition much too easily for a professional who was supposed to care about his patients.

* * *

The rebels spent the next couple of days discussing strategy as 624 group took on the responsibility of guarding Avon. Gaining the trust of someone who did not normally trust would be difficult at best, if not impossible. And even though his mind was damaged, his intellect was still intact. They would have to be careful and stick to the truth as much as possible. 

Vila and Jenna would have to re-establish their old ties with him, such as they were. There was severe disagreement when discussing how much movement to allow Avon and to what extent they would keep him physically disabled. None of them wanted to give him any chance of escaping. But at the same time, they had to convince him to help them by giving them ORAC. In the end they agreed to give him some mobility but to keep him restrained and guarded at all times. Drugs would be used to keep him physically weakened and limited medical treatment would ensure that his capacity for movement was restricted. Argus was very insistent on that, he was not about to let their valuable asset escape and they were not going to waste scarce medical resources on someone they were going to kill anyways.

Knowing what to reveal to Avon was difficult to assess since his memories seemed to be variable. They would have to be careful not to let him know that his final fate had already been decided; that would be difficult since they had to deal with the events at Gauda Prime if they were to get him to remember what they wanted. Jenna and Vila's participation would be essential.

Jenna wished Blake was still with them. He had had a knack for persuading a reluctant Avon to participate in his crusading mission against the Federation during their days on the _Liberator_. Avon was a genius with machines and facts, Blake had been a genius in handling people but in the end Avon had killed Blake. Jenna consoled herself with the knowledge that Avon's days were numbered.

Professor Tarkson returned to his post at the Clinic. An extended disappearance would have attracted unwanted attention. He would check on their progress periodically, as time permitted. Dr. Alberay would have the main task of monitoring Avon.


	11. Chapter 11

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Eleven

"As I had calculated, the rebels have made contact with Professor Tarkson, " Sester reported to Servalan on the vidscreen in Tarvin's office, he was at Central Security HQ on Earth.

Federation Security had begun to compile a list of this group of rebels from the recent burst report sent by the ASP computer virus. Dr Alberay had been on that list.

"You are sure we can trust him?"

"He knows what will happen to his family if he does not do what we ask and by now he will have first-hand evidence what can be done to those whom the Federation are not pleased with."

"He knows what he has to do?"

"Yes, he is one of the best in his field and with the additional information we have given him regarding the patient's treatments, he should have a good chance of achieving what you want."

"This is risky Sester, you had better be right. The rebels must not be allowed to gain the item." The warning in her voice was unmistakable.

"I understand Madame President. Using people from his past is the best way to break through. They will be able to convince him in a way no drugs or hypno-therapy would ever have been able to. We know that the item is still on the planet and the Federation controls the planet now. The rebels will have no chance to get to it before your security forces do."

"Make sure that they don't." She closed the vidlink from her end.

_Time to double-check alternate plans_. Sester trusted his own strategy, but when one worked for the Federation, and in particular Servalan, it was unwise not to have contingency arrangements; he did not want to be another Avon.

The greatest enemy to a psychostrategist was the lack of complete information. Sester knew he had not been given all the facts, he was sure of that now.

* * *

Though Servalan was angry at the breaches in security which had enabled the rebels to free Avon and rescue Argus, she recognized that it might prove to be more useful in the long run. 

She knew Avon and she knew what had been done to him by the Centre's specialists. A man who did not trust, would now be paranoid to the point of psychosis. His first objective would be to escape; the rebels should be capable enough to prevent that with Tarkson's input. The analyst's normal overriding motivations for freedom, independence and security would be intensified to the extreme; the only way to ensure that was to get access to ORAC and in his condition, Avon would use the rebels but would make sure they never got it ORAC, he would be the Federation's greatest ally in that respect. She had not needed Sester's assessment to tell her that.

With that knowledge, the presence of the ASP virus, the "cooperation" of Professor Tarkson, and Federation control over Gauda Prime, they were still very much in control of the situation. The days of this rebel faction were numbered. They would be destroyed once Servalan acquired ORAC.

_If only we could be partners and not deadly enemies Avon._

With a dangerous man like him working against her enemies, she could achieve anything but Servalan was never one for sentiment, Avon had to die after they got ORAC.

The only way to ensure his death was to kill him herself. In the past she had relied on others to do that, or had put him in impossible situations which would neutralize him forever, but he had always escaped. Each time, she had been angry, but also pleased. A world without Avon would be much less interesting but not this time; this time would be the final time.

The new Biliaran techno-virus was being readied for use on the first target planet in Sector Ten. A team of psychostrategists had drawn up a detailed strategy and a top Terra Nostra assassin had been dispatched to the warlord territories for a special task which would help destabilize the entire region.

It was hard to believe that three short months ago things had seemed to be spiraling into a black hole. Her plans were now coming to fruition.

* * *

Avon was able to walk without aid now, slowly and painfully. He was easily tired but he was mobile, it was a big step; he had not been able to do that in along time. Most of his external injuries and the breaks had healed. The internal ones were progressing much more slowly. The medtech had done little to speed the process; it was a wise move on their part. 

They still kept him in restraints but the manacles were now attached in front. Most of his time was controlled or monitored but when he was allowed to rest, they left him alone. The chamber where they left him to rest appeared to be an old vault, it was secured from the outside. He had no doubt there was always at least one guard present on the other side of the door but at least he was left alone.

There were no monitoring devices inside the cell, that was the first thing he checked each time they left him to sleep. The locking mechanism on the door was an old-fashioned, non-electronic bolt on the other side, no scope for his talents.

He had been practicing some of the exercises Cally had taught him on the _Liberator_. Working through the pain, he was starting to regain strength and increased range of motion. He did not give any indication of that to his captors, from their viewpoint, his recovery was painfully slow.

He tired easily, it was clearly caused by the medication the medtech injected into him every day. His mind was clear though, that was his greatest asset, and would be their undoing. There was one troubling thing, the psych drugs had long gone from his system, but he was still suffering from intense nightmares.

'Jenna' and 'Vila' spent the most time with him. They were trying to establish the 'old' relationships, trying to push him towards the time when they could persuade him to lead them to ORAC, their tactics were obvious.

Avon had been observing, biding his time. He had deliberately not asked any questions which would make it apparent he could see through the simulation. It would have been easy, but it would not serve his purposes.

He had been careful to not show any interest in the computers or machines in the areas they gave him entry to. But in reality he was very aware. In particular he had noticed the computer hand-units some of the rebels carried; his next goal was to see one closer up. Even though he had expressed no interest, they were always careful not to allow him access to any piece of technology.

Human beings were fallible, that was the one irrefutable fact.

In particular he wanted access to the unit, the rebel he had identified as Tess, was in possession of. The other units could have been fakes to fool him when they finally trusted him enough to grant him access. But he had been surreptitiously watching Tess using her unit. From what he observed the odds were that her unit was real and had real access. Tess appeared to be the group's computer expert; some techs could not stand being cut off from the network, if that was true, it was the mistake he was looking for.

He would have to get to know her but he would not initiate anything, he could wait. ORAC was safe where it was.

When Blake and his crew were at the shadow planet Zondor, aliens had succeeded in controlling ORAC using transdimensional communication waves. Avon had put in special security measures to prevent it from ever happening again. In his study of ORAC at the time, he had also discovered something very useful, something which he had never felt the need to tell the others; he had discovered ORAC's command code and command frequency.

Every computer had a command code which, when activated, would cause it to only respond to the source. Despite Ensor's arrogance that ORAC was much more than a computer, he had still built in this contingency. But as added security, when accessed remotely, ORAC's command code could only be used on the special frequency.

On Gauda Prime, before he and the _Scorpio_ group entered the underground silo, Avon had made emergency plans. When their ship had been attacked without warning the moment they entered planetary orbit, Avon had surmised they had arrived into a trap. Whether it was a trap for them or not had remained to be seen. He had hidden ORAC and used the command code to leave specific instructions in case they were captured. In a worse case scenario he had also made additional plans.

Avon had been living the worse case scenario. From this band of "rebels" he discovered that it had been eleven months since that fateful day on Gauda Prime. Eleven months of Federation generosity.

He was tired and he wanted it to be over, he wanted to be free.

Since he had activated the command code, ORAC would no longer respond to anyone else, except him. Even if someone accidently stumbled on ORAC, which was highly unlikely, it would be of no use to them. Even if they had the command code, control was locked on the first source to use it. That was him, until he released it.

To gain his freedom, he needed ORAC's help and in order to get that, he needed access to the real Federation computer and communications network.

There was one other item he was missing, ORAC's activator key; the small control box. Without it he could only access ORAC indirectly using the command frequency. Servalan had the key in her possession; she had taken it from him after he had been shot and taken on Gauda Prime. He would deal with that when the time came and he would deal with her.

Avon finished his exercises and sat back on the bed resting against the wall. The pain was bearable but because of the drugs, the exertion always left him exhausted. He closed his eyes.

He could hear the bolt to the door being pushed back. The door opened and Vila entered the cell.

"How would you like a walk on the roof today?" Vila asked.

"Do I have a choice?"

"You could rot in here, " Vila shrugged. He noted that Avon looked tired and strained. _He must still be in pain._

"Well, since you make it sound so appealing."

Vila helped him up from the bed. Two rebel guards followed them as Avon made his way slowly. They stopped at the foot of the stairs going to the roof. Vila looked up the long, winding flight of stairs leading upwards and then at Avon who was leaning against the wall, breathing heavily, as if he had been running. He knew that the guards had no interest in helping Avon. They were only there to ensure he never had a chance to escape.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

"Really." The single word was said without emotion but he still managed to convey clear sarcasm. Avon could have told him it was not a good idea before they left his cell but he never volunteered information and definitely not when he had something to gain.

He was slowly getting a better layout of the building they were in as they began expanding the areas they allowed him access to.

"Let's go back to the hall, " Vila said.

Back in the eating area, Vila settled for bringing two chairs up one of the windows so they could look outside. The guards sat at a table nearby.

The thief and the analyst sat in silence looking out. The room was empty except for Vila, Avon and their escort. This side of the building overlooked what must have once been a courtyard. It was full of rubble from the surrounding ruined buildings.

"Do you remember Gauda Prime, Avon?"

This was a frequent question that Vila and Jenna asked him. Avon could not quite figure out why. The real Vila would know what happened.

_Why do they keep asking me this?_ This was a mystery; was it an attempt at conditioning? He had to solve this.

"Yes."

Vila was shocked, he had not expected this answer. This was the first time Avon acknowledged remembering Gauda Prime. He wondered if he should go get Jenna or Argus but instead he asked, "Do you remember what happened?" Vila's headache was starting up again.

"Of course. Don't you?"

"Why did you kill Blake, Avon?" the question came out in a hurry, before Vila had a chance to think about the consequences.

_I hope this is a good idea. Jenna and Argus are not going to be happy, I don't like angry people, especially when they're angry at me. _Vila's head was pounding now. He felt strange, as if his mind wasn't attached to his body.

"You know why Vila, " Avon replied emotionlessly. He stared at the thief. _The real Vila would know. _

How much did Servalan's people know about what happened on Gauda Prime?

Avon could remember Servalan's boast the last time she tortured him.

_Everyone knows what happened on Gauda Prime, my version. I was very creative. It wasn't much of a stretch to plant rumors that you were well paid for Blake's death and betraying the Scorpio crew._

Avon looked back towards the window and sighed.

"Is that why I have been receiving such generous hospitality?" he smiled sarcastically lifting his manacled hands.

In deciding to deal with the events at Gauda Prime, Avon had made his next move. He knew it was a calculated risk. Sester could not control when the key events were to occur but Avon could force the events to happen when he chose and with whom.

He had waited for the opportunity to be alone with Vila again. Of all the ones in the simulation who had direct communication with him, Vila was the most vulnerable. Their Vila was very much like the Vila he knew.

Vila was confused, when Avon had looked at him and said, "You know why._" _Vila had the distinct impression that there was a much deeper meaning being implied. Was he imagining it? His headache had returned full force, he really wished Jenna and Argus were there.

"Yes, you betrayed all of us Avon and you killed Blake." Vila was angry.

"Yes, I killed Blake." A flash of something crossed Avon's face, but it disappeared so quick that Vila couldn't quite make out what it was. Pain? Regret? Anger? Guilt? No it couldn't be guilt, guilt was alien to Avon.

"Why did you do it Avon?"

Avon decided it was time for a little more truth. _How long will Servalan allow you to live if you knew the truth Sester?_

"You know why Vila, " he repeated. As he continued his narration, the events on Gauda Prime replayed in his mind.

"Blake made a mistake. He played a dangerous game when he pretended to Tarrant that he had sold out to the Federation and was working for them. Because of that, Tarrant told me that Blake had sold us out. I killed Blake before he had a chance to explain. By the time we knew the truth, it was already too late."

He closed his eyes as he remembered firing the shots which killed Blake. He felt the pain of each blast, even though it was Blake who was shot. _Strange_. The madness had claimed him then.

"You should remember Vila, you were there."

Standing over Blake's body protectively, Avon had been prepared to die as he raised his rifle to fire at the Federation troops who had surrounded him; but it had all been a trap. He had already been struck by a pulse rifle bolt when Servalan's personal troops rushed in without warning and killed all of the Federation forces. As he lay dying, Avon remembered Servalan kneeling by him, demanding to know where ORAC was before he passed out. That had started an eleven month nightmare and it was not over yet.

"Stop!" Vila shouted at Avon. The thief held his head in his hands, the headache was now unbearable. The pain had increased exponentially as Avon spun his version of what happened at Gauda Prime. He grabbed Avon by the shoulder and threw him to the ground. "Lies! You betrayed us! You're a traitor! You tried to kill me! Throw me out of the airlock! Traitor!" He started kicking Avon who was still lying on the ground.

_This was not the reaction I was expecting _Avon thought. Other than raising his hands to protect his head, Avon did not offer any resistance.

The guards did not stop Vila, they were shocked. Vila was acting crazed, out of control as he kicked the defenseless prisoner. They were unsure as to what they should do, they knew Vila was one of the key people entrusted with handling Avon. Even though they were not as blood-thirsty as the other ex-military groups, 624 had no interest in helping Blake's murderer.

"Stop him!" Dr Alberay had burst into the room and commanded the guards. The noise had caught his attention and he had come to investigate. The guards grabbed Vila arms and tried to pull him away from Avon. The thief tried to punch them, flailing blindly, getting in a few good strikes. He kept shouting. "Traitor!" "Betrayer!" Even as he attacked the guards. He was like a man possessed, the guards could barely contain him, at that point, the doctor applied an anaesthetic patch.

"What happened?" Alberay asked the guards as he bent down to examine Avon. Multiple bruises and a fractured rib, more internal injuries; this would set back the patient's recovery by a couple of weeks at least.

"They were talking and then all of a sudden, Vila went berserk and started attacking him."

The doctor told one of the guards to inform Argus and Jenna. What puzzled him was Vila, the look in the thief's eyes before being tranquilized was that of someone who had lost control.

Dr. Alberay had been concerned about Vila's headaches. When Vila had first come to him complaining of headaches, he had not found a physical cause for them. There did not appear to be any internal or external source which could explain the pain. The doctor had attributed it to stress but no ordinary stressor would cause the out-of-character and out-of-control behavior which had just occurred, something was definitely wrong.


	12. Chapter 12

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Twelve

"How are they doctor?" asked Jenna a little later. Both Avon and Vila lay on beds in the room which Dr. Alberay had converted into a makeshift med unit.

"Avon has a fractured rib, additional internal injuries, and numerous bruises. Health-wise he has reverted back to where he was over a week ago but his condition is stable. My real concern is Vila, I had to sedate him, he was completely out-of-control. If he had not been stopped, I believe he would have beaten Avon to death."

"That is not like Vila." Jenna told them.

"I agree."

"Do you know what could have caused this?"

"A suspicion, I've been treating Vila for headaches for the past month. I could find no physical cause so I attributed it to stress but I have been noticing a curious coincidence. His headaches always seemed to occur whenever he interacts with Avon or is thinking about Avon or the events on Gauda Prime."

"What are you saying doctor?" asked Argus.

"With this newest incident, It makes me wonder if my suspicions were correct. Certain factors seem to be triggering his headaches and the way he was behaving this time, also points to something else much more troubling."

"And that would be?"

"I don't know for certain yet but I suggest that we keep him away from Avon until we understand what is happening. It is probably best to keep Avon in his cell for now."

Argus directed the guards to do just that. As they carried the prisoner out, Jenna said, "We all have good reason to kill Avon but Vila saw him kill Blake. Now he is being forced to interact with Avon almost daily. Maybe it proved to be too much for him and he suffered a breakdown of some kind."

"It is possible, if it was just the headaches, " Alberay said, "but the way he was acting; out-of-control, almost psychotic, even attacking Ealen and Sams when they tried to stop him, it points to much more than just a mental breakdown. It was as if he was responding to something else. I'm not a psych specialist, I will have to consult with Professor Tarkson, he will have a much better idea."

* * *

Avon was back in his cell, lying on the bed trying to rest. The general pain level had increased with the new injuries but pain was a normal part of his existence. The attack had set back his recovery and his plans for escape but there was a mystery here, something he had not, in any way considered.

Vila's actions were inexplicable; the look in his eyes when he attacked him, his whole manner and loss of control, chanting words over and over. Avon recognized it, Blake had exhibited this behavior many years ago. It had been another one of Servalan's plots. Using a controlled beam to activate latent triggers which had been implanted deep into Blake's subconscious by Federation criminotherapists, Servalan had been able to control him and to impose a different reality in order to influence his actions.

_Would they have planned this simulation to such a depth? Would they program their own man in order to fool me? Servalan would know that I would recognize this, would connect this with what happened to Blake, this is exactly the kind of meticulous planning and creative detail she is capable of._

Servalan and Sester working together. He smiled. The impossibility of his task had been raised.

He had to escape.

* * *

"Vila, tell me the events leading up to the incident in the eating hall." Professor Tarkson was seated in a chair opposite Vila in the medical unit. He had put Vila in a waking hypnotic state so that they could question him. Vila was seated on the bed and was leaning against the wall. Jenna, Argus and Dr. Alberay were hovering nearby, watching the exchange.

"You mean before I went berserk?" Vila did not like all this attention.

"Yes, we need to find out what happened and why, just relax and tell us what you remember."

"Alright, " he said reluctantly. He began to recount what happened, "I went to Avon's cell. I was thinking a change in scenery might do some good so I decided to take him up to the roof. There was no chance of him escaping, I had Ealen and Sams with me. But when we got to the stairs, I realized it was not a good idea. Avon didn't look like he could make it up more than two steps, so we decided to go back to the eating area."

"Did you have a headache then?"

Vila thought for a bit. "No. Not then."

"Continue."

"I put some chairs by the window so we could look outside and have a chat."

Vila realized what a strange idea that was, having a chat with Avon. Avon was a man of thought and when required, action. He was most comfortable interacting with computers and machines, he did not normally "chat" with other human beings.

"I asked him if he remembered what happened on Gauda Prime, he said yes."

"He said yes?" Jenna reacted in surprise. Both she and Argus leaned forward, this was a new development.

"Yes I was shocked too. I should have sent someone for you then, I don't know why I didn't. Then I asked him why he killed Blake."

"Vila!" Jenna exclaimed. She was clearly not pleased that Vila had taken this step without consulting with her or Argus.

Vila could tell they were not happy. _Angry people. _He needed a drink.

Tarkson asked, "How was your head then?"

"I felt strange, my head was starting to hurt_, " _he replied. His head was starting to hurt now. Addressing Jenna and Argus he said, "I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."

Tarkson pressed, "What do you mean 'felt strange'?"

"I don't know, it was just strange."

"Think Vila. How was it strange?"

He closed his eyes, concentrating. "Part of me was angry, very angry." They could all see that Vila was agitated.

"The other part of me…it was a blur. My head hurts." Vila's hand went to his forehead.

"Is that when you attacked him?"

"No."

"What happened that caused you to attack him?"

"It was what he said about Blake. Traitor! I want to kill him." Vila's hands clenched and he moved to get up.

"Vila! Relax!" The professor quickly applied a sonic applicator to the side of Vila's head and signaled Argus and Jenna to remain seated. Vila was visibly calmer.

"Now Vila. I want you to recall what Avon said to you, " Vila instantly responded in agitation, "but not yet, not until I tell you to." Vila relaxed again.

Professor Tarkson worked for another hour but only got a little further.

"Sleep now Vila."

Throughout Vila's account, Jenna had been experiencing déjà vu. She had seen this kind of behavior before, with Blake, years ago.

* * *

After the session, the four gathered in one of the small meeting rooms to discuss the results.

"That was a waste of time, we didn't learn any more than we already knew, " Argus said. "We need to question Avon to find out what he said to Vila to set him off." His instinct was telling him that something was going on. But he couldn't quite pin down what it was. One thing he was certain of, Avon held the key.

"On the contrary, " Tarkson corrected him, "we have found out some significant information."

"What is that professor?" Jenna asked.

"First of all, Vila's headaches have a definite trigger. They are caused whenever the idea of Avon and the events at Gauda Prime are introduced. Sometimes just mentioning one will set it off, but definitely when both of them are brought in. Second, this trigger can also provoke feelings of great anger. Third, there is the "strangeness" he experiences in connection with what happened at Gauda Prime. Fourth, when he tries to identify the strangeness, the headache intensifies. Fifth, he is not able to identify the "strangeness", in fact the headache prevents it."

Tarkson looked at them expectantly.

"What does that tell us?" Jenna asked.

He sighed. _Civilians. _"His mind has obviously been tampered with. There is a trigger associated with Avon and the events at Gauda Prime which cause an instant emotional response. There are other memories surrounding those events which are the cause of the headaches. Whenever they try to break through, or when he tries to access them, the headaches result. This points to memory blocks. Whoever placed the blocks want him to remember specific things and want to prevent him from remembering others. Something Avon said to him must have directly accessed those repressed memories and Vila's mind could not handle it, that is why he turned violent."

"Is there a way for us to access those memories?" Dr Alberay asked.

"Not without breaking the memory blocks, that will take time and intense therapy but there is a much faster way."

"And what is that?" Argus asked.

"You were right before, we need to ask Avon."

"Assuming he still remembers."

"Assuming he still remembers, " the professor agreed. Tarkson knew something the others did not. From the information the psychostrategist had given him, he knew that Avon had been playing games with the memory confusion. Avon did not trust the rebels and he was biding his time. Tarkson had been ordered not interfere until the opportunity presented itself which would further the Federation's aims, this was such an opportunity.


	13. Chapter 13

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Thirteen

"Are you going to tell us the truth now?" Tarkson asked. His voice sounded hollow in the bare cell. Avon had been helped to a sitting position on the bed, the professor was seated on a chair next to him and Argus and Jenna were seated off to the side.

"I don't know what you mean."

"The truth about what happened on Gauda Prime, or have you conveniently forgotten again."

Avon stared at him impassively. Tarkson did not budge, it was clear he did not believed the pretense any longer.

"Are you going to try to beat it out of me if I don't?" his tone was clearly a challenge.

"I will, " Argus threatened, moving forward. Jenna restrained him and Tarkson held up a hand to wave him back.

Avon smiled. _So predictable._

Avon appreciated the depth and complexity of the simulation being used against him. Either Servalan trusted all of the people involved in the simulation, which was highly unlikely, or they were all slated for an untimely demise soon after she got what she wanted.

Jenna asked, "Avon, we need to know what happened. What is happening to Vila, you recognize it as well as I do. The Federation has done something to his mind, like they did with Blake's. Tell us what happened."

"Well now, all you had to do was ask."

He began, his voice barely went beyond a monotone, emphasizing a point without emotion and only with the controlled modulation of his voice. His face was expressionless. Jenna remembered this Avon well, the Avon she never trusted.

"The rebel alliance needed a new figurehead after Zukor betrayed us at the Xenon summit conference. I had asked ORAC to locate Blake, it found him working as a bounty hunter on Gauda Prime. We went there looking for Blake but the moment we entered orbit, we were attacked and the _Scorpio_ crash landed on the planet. It was clear we had fallen into a trap. Vila, Dayna, Soolin and I teleported out. Tarrant crashed with the ship but was later rescued by Blake. The rest of us followed a flyer to an underground silo where we met up with Tarrant. Tarrant told us that Blake had betrayed us." Avon stopped, he had a faraway look. "I killed Blake."

"You expect us to believe that Blake betrayed you and that is why you killed him?" Argus asked incredulously, he had enough.

"You're lying." Jenna accused Avon, she knew it was a lie, that was not why Blake was on Gauda Prime.

"Yes, there was a lie but it is not mine. Blake had been playing a dangerous game on Gauda Prime. He was recruiting rebel fighters and testing them by pretending to be working with the Federation. That is what he did with Tarrant that was why Tarrant believed he had betrayed us."

At this explanation, Jenna had a sinking feeling. She and Deva had warned Blake time and again that what he was doing was dangerous, that he was taking unnecessary risks by insisting on personally testing each potential recruit. Against her better instincts, she was beginning to entertain a disturbing thought.

"Didn't you ask him to explain?" Jenna asked.

"I asked but I didn't give him enough time to explain. By the time we found out the truth, it was too late, Blake was dead. Federation soldiers arrived and killed the crew. I was hit by a pulse rifle blast, but Servalan's personal troops came in and killed the Federation troops. I lost consciousness. I've been enjoying Federation hospitality ever since." There it was, the information that would seal the fates of everyone in the room.

"What did they want with you?"

"One guess."

"ORAC."

The key word was out. There was no going back.

"Jenna, don't tell me you believe any of this." Argus still did not believe Avon, and he had not liked what he was starting to hear in Jenna's voice. All of his instincts were telling him that there was something else going on. The ex-Federation commander did not like being manipulated and he recognized that Avon was much too clever.

"Let's discuss this outside, " he told them all.

They filed out and closed the door behind them, leaving Avon locked in.

Jenna turned to Argus. "Argus, I have more reason to hate him than any of you, more reason not to trust him but something is wrong. You saw how Vila acted during the session. I've seen it before, that happened to Blake years ago. What Professor Tarkson said makes sense. And unfortunately, Avon was right, Blake took too many unnecessary risks, the game he played to test loyalties, it was much too dangerous. I warned him many times and we have all seen what the Federation did to Avon, the torture, we've seen the marks on him and we know what they tried to do to his mind."

"Are you saying that you believe him now, that you trust him?" It was clear to Argus that her opinions about Avon were in the process of changing.

"I don't trust him, I never have but I think we need to take a look at this seriously. We don't want to make a mistake. What do you think Professor?"

"You're asking me for an assessment?"

"Yes."

"It is very clear that something happened at Gauda Prime which someone does not want revealed. As a result, false memories were implanted into Vila and memory-blocks placed to prevent him from remembering the truth. The same thing was not done with Avon because there was vital information they wanted which they did not want to risk losing. They doubtless never thought that he would ever escape, and probably planned to kill him once they obtained the information they wanted. It is my assessment that Avon's account of events is most likely the true one."

"Then he did not betray Blake?" Jenna asked.

"I do not believe so but he did kill him."

"Argus?" Jenna looked at the rebel leader.

"I do not believe it, he is highly intelligent and it is not beyond him to manipulate the situation but I do think something is going on." Argus's interaction with Avon the past few weeks had left him the impression of an extremely dangerous man. His instincts told him that the man could never be trusted. His military training told him that you do not give a dangerous enemy the chance to gain the upper hand.

"What about Vila? Someone has obviously tampered with his mind to make us believe something which may not be true."

"That still remains to be proven."

"What are we going to do?"

"Our primary goal still remains the same."

"You're right, we need to get ORAC. Argus, if Avon is telling the truth, it will be hard to convince everyone else. The stories of Avon's betrayal are widespread throughout all the systems, they are too entrenched."

"_If_ it is true but regardless he still did kill Blake."

She nodded. _Yes, he did kill Blake. How could I have forgotten that so soon. Avon, that is a mistake you can never undo._

"Let's see if he remembers where ORAC is." Argus unlocked the door.

As they re-entered the cell, Avon had not changed position. He knew they would return; he had been waiting. There was one question they still had to ask.

He could see the varying degrees of belief quite clearly in the way they looked at him. Jenna was conflicted but was leaning towards believing him, Argus clearly did not, and Tarkson, Avon could not tell. Something about the professor made him uneasy.

"Where is ORAC, Avon?" It was Jenna who asked the question.

"Do you believe me?"

"You know me well enough to know that I do not trust you."

"That is not what I asked."

"Where is ORAC?" Argus stepped in, he had no intention of allowing Avon to control the situation and deflect them from their task.

Avon looked at the senior rebel leader.

"Do I take it that your belief is predicated on my giving you ORAC?"

They did not answer him.

"I know that you intend to have me executed once you get what you want.

"Who told you that?" Jenna was shocked that someone would have leaked that information to Avon.

_You are far too clever. _Argus thought.

"It was not hard to deduce. You could hardly do anything else."

"Tell us where ORAC is, " Argus told Avon. This time it was not a question, it was a demand.

Avon stared at Argus and enunciating every word very deliberately, "I don't remember." Argus moved forward swiftly and without warning punched him in the jaw. None of them had a chance to react to stop him.

"Argus!" Jenna cried out.

Dispassionately Avon wiped the blood flowing down from a cut lip with the back of his hand.

_Again predictable. _His response had been carefully calculated to provoke this kind of reaction.

"Do you think you can do a better job of torturing me than the Federation?" Avon asked. "Don't pit yourself against me Argus, you won't win."

"Avon, " Jenna called his attention. Avon turned his head towards her. "Part of me does believe you but as you've said, I've never trusted you. For your own sake help me to believe you."

Avon did not answer her, he was waiting. To be effective, the next progression had to originate from them; he had already said as much as he was going to.

"I'm tired of this, Jenna, " Argus said impatiently. "We all know that he knows, he's just refusing to tell us. We need to employ more effective means." Argus had enough of the patient approach, especially when his instincts were telling him that they were all being manipulated.

He grabbed Avon, pulled him off the bed and shoved him into a chair. He removed the manacles and connected Avon's hands behind him to the chair. "Get the pain rod that was picked up from the Detention Centre."

"Argus are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Jenna tried to dissuade him.

"He's been manipulating us Jenna. How many times have you warned me that he's dangerous?" Ealen came in with the rod and handed it to Argus.

"This looks familiar." Avon remarked to no one in particular.

"Yes, and if you don't tell us where ORAC is, you will feel how familiar." Argus told him angrily.

"For once, I'd like to see some creativity but I don't suppose that's a requirement for your position."

Argus turned the rod to maximum and applied it to Avon's body. Avon screamed and arched against the chair as the pain passed through his body, it was so unexpectedly intense that he could barely breathe. He could feel his mind slowly lose consciousness when the rod was removed.

Avon did not relish the risk he was taking, it was a calculated gamble. He hoped that he had not overestimated Professor Tarkson's intelligence else he was in for a long period of discomfort.

"You cannot conveniently forget Avon, not anymore." Argus touched him with the activated rod again. Using the top pain setting from the beginning indicated his inexperience with torture.

"It was hardly convenient, " Avon managed a strangled reply after Argus lifted the instrument.

"Hold it Argus, " said Professor Tarkson, putting his hand on Argus's arm to stop him. He addressed Avon when Argus complied.

"You said that you do not remember."

Avon looked at the professor dispassionately and did not reply.

"You did not say that you don't know."

Again Avon only responded by staring at him.

"And you said that it was not convenient that you did not remember."

"Correct." Avon finally broke his silence, Tarkson was not going to disappoint him.

"It was deliberate?"

_Sometimes talking to Avon is like trying to talk to ORAC_ Jenna thought.

"I don't understand, " Argus told the professor. "What is this?" Argus had never had much time for psych specialists and Tarkson was getting on his nerves. He didn't realize it but he shared the same opinion about the good professor as Avon did. There was something about this man he could not quite pin down, something hidden.

"It's called active forgetting, an advanced mental technique in which the subject deliberately forgets specific information to the point that he can no longer access the information consciously himself. I think Avon may have used this method in order to prevent the Federation from getting the information they wanted. I have been wondering about this. The Federation is too good at the arts of persuasion. With the drugs and techniques at their disposal, to hold out as long as he has without giving them what they want is not possible." He turned to Avon and asked, "Am I correct?"

Again Avon did not answer.

Argus shook his head. "This is too convenient."

The professor stressed, "It's the only thing which explains how he was able to survive so long under their best specialists without breaking."

Argus was clearly unconvinced.

"Servalan was obsessed with finding ORAC, " Avon began to explain. They all turned their heads towards him. "She put the Centre's best specialists on the task. As you said, they are masters at the arts of persuasion. They worked on me until my heart gave out then they would bring me around, fill me with drugs and begin again. The first couple of months, they killed me so many times, I lost count but the worst was what they called the mind-torture and the psych-torture cycles. From Blake and Vila, you are familiar with some of the methods, but these were much more advanced. After awhile, I could barely distinguish between reality and the hypnotic visions they were forcing into me."

_I still may not be able to _Avon thought.

"The professor is correct, I knew I could not hold out indefinitely. So I tried to forget the information they wanted. After awhile, I found that I could no longer remember."

Avon fell silent, waiting for their reaction. What he told them was completely plausible, it also had the advantage of being partially true.

"Is this really possible?" Jenna asked the professor.

"I have never seen it personally but I have heard rumours of such techniques being used by deep-cover agents in the Federation but usually these kinds of techniques require advanced mental training by those experienced in the field."

"So it's not possible for someone not trained, " Argus insisted on being the voice of reason.

"I didn't quite say that, I said usually. I have examined Avon extensively over the past month. His mind is unusually strong, as established by his ability to resist the methods the Federation used on him. A lesser mind would have shut down long ago. It is just possible that he was able to achieve such a state out of sheer desperation. The disorientation and alienation tactics they used may have facilitated something they did not expect."

"You are saying that the information is no longer accessible?" Jenna asked.

"From what I know about this topic, it is likely that he left himself a trigger so that he could access the information when it was safe to do so. For Federation agents, this is most likely a command code or phrase, known only to their handlers. But in this case, I do not believe that it would be a conscious trigger, that would have also left the information vulnerable."

"Then what would it be? And how do we find out if this is true?"

"That I don't know, I do not have enough data. To find out if it is true, we will need to break through Vila's conditioning so that he can either verify or refute Avon's story" He turned to Avon and asked. "Is there a trigger?"

"Yes but as you said, it is not a conscious one. It is related to having access to a computer and communications network."

"You're not seriously expecting us to give you access to the Federation CompComm network?" Argus asked. Avon had nerve and was playing them for fools.

"You have a way to contact ORAC?" Jenna asked as it dawned on her what Avon had been saying.

Avon ignored Argus and answered Jenna, "Indirectly, I left instructions for ORAC to monitor all Federation communications traffic it had access to without the cipher unit."

"You can give us the instructions and we can have Tess contact ORAC." Jenna suggested.

"You can but it would be no use to you, ORAC cannot tell you where it is. There is no locator on it; only I know where ORAC is."

"Very convenient." Argus remarked skeptically. _Too convenient._

"If you want ORAC, I need access to the communications network. Understand this Argus, you do not trust me and I do not trust you. I will not tell you how to contact ORAC; you can subject me to whatever torture your limited imagination can come up with but do this and you will never get ORAC."

Dr. Albarey's wristcomm started beeping. "Sorry, just a reminder."

They watched as the doctor removed a small case from an inside pocket and removed the electronic injector. He set the dosage and applied the applicator end to Avon's neck.

As the drugs made their way through his system, Avon closed his eyes. The drugs used to keep him physically weakened always produced a few minutes of dizziness and disorientation.

"What are you afraid of Argus?" he asked without opening his eyes. His voice sounded strained, he was trying to concentrate but the initial effects of the drugs had not worn off yet, "You are going to get what the Federation has been trying for a year to extract from me without success. You can have your own people monitor everything I do."

At that point he opened his eyes and focused on the rebel leader. He smiled, "And you can still have me executed afterwards as you had originally planned." He closed his eyes again. Avon recognized early on that Argus was the one he had to contend with, the others were pawns.

"Argus, he's right, we are already taking every precaution to prevent him from doing anything against us and even though this is a risk, we can lessen it by having Tess monitor everything he does. It is worth the risk if we can get ORAC."

"ORAC is really worth it?"

"Yes, it is."

Argus hesitated, he knew Avon was not a man who would do anything unless it was advantageous to himself. If the analyst knew that they were going to kill him it did not make sense that he would freely give them ORAC; but here he was doing just that and he had not even attempted to use it as a bargaining chip.

"Why are you doing this?" Argus asked him. "What do you have to gain?"

"Servalan must be prevented from getting ORAC; I cannot stop her myself."

"So this is for mutual convenience."

"Yes."

"But if you could get away with ORAC, you would not hesitate to take the opportunity."

Avon smiled.

Jenna said, "If you betray us, I will personally kill you."

"I wouldn't expect anything less."

Avon was playing two games at once; the closer one was this simulation, the other more dangerous one was the match with Sester, and perhaps Servalan. He had to put himself into a winning position in both games in order to succeed. In order for him to have any chance in the game that mattered, they had to make the mistake of allowing him access to a real network. It would depend on how greedy they were and how confident.

Greed and pride. They were human weaknesses which had never failed his expectations else he should have been long dead.

"And if she doesn't, I will" Argus warned him. "Doctor, I want you to double the dosage."

"If I do that, he won't even be able to stand, " Alberay replied.

"Alright, not double but enough to ensure he has no opportunity to escape."

The doctor nodded. He readjusted the dosage and injected more of the drug into Avon's neck.


	14. Chapter 14

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Fourteen

The next day Avon was introduced formally to Tess. She acquainted him with the hand-held computer and the bio-interface head unit. The interface was a new technology no more than three standard years old.

Tess and Avon were seated in reclinable chairs in the workshop area, his two guards were posted by the door.

"Here put this on, " Tess handed Avon a bio-interface head unit. She was already wearing one.

She plugged her unit into the computer.

"Now when I plug yours in, expect a few moments of disorientation but just relax and allow your mind to adjust to it. We'll just try a few simple exercises today until you get used to it, with some practice you should be able to bring things into order."

Not everyone could use the bio-interface technology and beyond the Federation military no one currently possessed one. Being the daughter of an influential board member of one of the most powerful arms cartels, Tess had gained herself access to this classified toy.

Only a highly disciplined and controlled mind was capable of using this technology, which was why Tess was the only one of the group to use this interface method. It gave it's user unprecedented access to the computer network. If Argus had understood the technology, he would never have allowed Tess to introduce it to him. Tess had heard a lot about Avon's abilities and was curious to see if his mind would be able to handle it. She was confident that she could monitor and control Avon's access.

"Ready?"

Avon nodded.

A flood of impulses filled his mind in a jumble but very shortly he found his awareness had expanded considerably. He was aware of the coherent flow of data along the network the computer unit was plugged into. It was incredible. He was also aware of constraints, imposed by the computer unit he was attached to. It had limited capabilities and also deliberate controls; these must have been put in by Tess.

He became aware of something else, something was next to him. As he focused his attention, he realized it was the rebel computer expert. Somehow their mental selves had an identity in the system. She was attached to him, he could quite clearly see the links. It was fascinating.

"What do you see?" she asked him.

"Flows and junctions, a network" he replied.

"That's good." Tess was excited, she had not expected his answer.

She led him on a virtual tour, acquainting him with the various items they had access to along this network.

They would have to find a secure means to contact ORAC without alerting the Federation Security forces. Tess and Avon explored the networks together, investigating various avenues.

Tess reported Avon's progress to Argus and Jenna.

"His mind is incredible, he was able to order it the first time out. I'm not aware of anyone who's been able to do that yet. It usually takes days of gradual acclimatization to be able to recognize anything more than static. He can already see the network and the data flows and he was able to move along them without being shown how, which is just amazing. Only a quarter of those who can use the bio-interface can achieve mobility along the networks and most have limited range when crossing networks but not him." Tess was bursting with enthusiasm, she had found a fellow adept.

Jenna and Argus looked at each other, Tess's enthusiasm with all things technical was usually a source of amusement for them. It was ironic that she was becoming fascinated with Avon, who was really more a cold, calculating machine than a human being. Jenna had never understood it herself but women seemed to be fascinated with Avon.

They could not allow this attachment from Tess. She was the best computer expert among all the rebel groups, they had been fortunate when she joined them. Only she had a chance to monitor someone like Avon.

"Tess contain your enthusiasm, remember he is a dangerous man and cannot be trusted, " Argus reminded her. "You have to be on your guard at all times, do not allow him to get beyond you." He had always been protective of Tess and she treated him like an older brother. Anyone who hurt her, answered to him.

"Don't worry Argus, I know the stakes. When have I ever let you down?"

"Never, I know. I just wanted you to be careful. You have probably never met someone with a mind like his."

"Stop worrying big brother, I am probably more aware of that now than anyone of you."

"I am going to give you the rod we took from the Detention Centre. If at any time you feel that he is getting beyond your control, use it. Don't hesitate, we cannot afford to allow him to get beyond our control. Let us know right away."

"Do you really feel that's necessary? I have placed control links and restrictions on his access. He cannot go anywhere in the system without me being right beside him and he cannot initiate any action without my permission, he can only observe. He also tires easily. Access takes an enormous amount of concentration and mental energy, with the drugs, you have made sure he cannot sustain it for very long."

Argus sighed, this little sister was sometimes a little too smart for her own good. He trusted her but he worried about her good-naturedness sometimes. She had not seen as much of the worlds as he had and she definitely had never met someone as dangerous as Avon, he would have to keep an eye on the two of them.

* * *

Avon was resting in his cell after another computer session with Tess. He had not felt this level of tiredness since his days at the SDC when they always kept him on the verge of complete exhaustion, but that was not was he was thinking about. If he was a man who allowed himself to feel any kind of emotion, he would have been elated, things were progressing much more quickly than he had expected. They had made the fatal flaw.

Being plugged into the computer network via the bio-interface had been a revelation. He had always appreciated the purity and truth of computers; the deceit was always in the human element. With the bio-interface, he was able to 'see' the truth. His awareness of the limited systems Tess had given him access to had shown him that the Federation was willing to risk a great deal in order to gain to ORAC.

Avon realized that Sester must have some reason to be confident that allowing him this kind of access would not endanger Servalan's goal. Avon knew he would have to be careful and vigilant, they must be able to watch him on a level he was not yet conscious of. It was possible that their confidence lay solely in the fact that the Federation controlled Gauda Prime and any access on his part, as long as they did not allow him direct contact with ORAC would be useless because he could not physically retrieve it himself.

Tess was a weak point he could exploit. He had been aware of her joy as they travelled the network together, she had the enthusiasm of the typical tech-head. He could tell from her reaction that she was surprised at how easily he had adapted to the technology. She had an alpha-grade mind but she was human, and thus fallible and vulnerable. He would test her abilities in the next few sessions, he had to find out how far her awareness extended into the system. The restrictions he could not do anything about for now, nor the drugs.

This access to the computer network was another game, on a very different level, a level he was a master at.

Vila had been wrong on the prison ship London, when he told Blake that Avon was the number two man with computers in all the Federated Worlds and that the number one man was the one who caught him. Avon was unequaled in all the Federated Worlds. As he had told Blake then, the only reason he was caught was because of the human element, he had made the mistake of relying on other people.

The exercise with Tess, searching for a safe way for communication, was a useful pretext. In reality, he had always known the best way to contact ORAC, he was taking the opportunity to test the new technology. It was a powerful tool, for him.

* * *

Sester was more than pleased as he read Professor Tarkson's report, Avon was performing as expected. The psychostrategist, with Servalan's authorization, had coordinated with the Federation's Electronics Surveillance Division to put their entire monitoring system into the highest alert level. The passive monitors were being retuned.

Sester had great respect for Avon's abilities in this arena. He had access to Avon's early aptitude tests and it was no accident that the analyst was ranked in the top ten percentile of the alpha grades; most psychostrategists were in this category and so was Servalan.

There was something in the report which caused Sester to be concerned; it was Avon's account of the events at Gauda Prime. Sester knew he was in danger if Servalan ever found out he knew what really happened there. Anyone who had access to Avon's account was in danger.

Servalan had worked outside Federation law in what she did on Gauda Prime, she had had Federation troops deliberately killed in order to gain access to Avon. There were other things still hidden from him but Sester had no doubt that it was equally dangerous knowledge. Even though she had ultimate authority as President, Servalan still had to appear to work within the Federation's rule of law.

It was fortunate, or rather deliberate, that he had first access to Tarkson's reports. He would do some judicious editing before passing on the report to Servalan and Tarvin of Central Security. But he knew that it was only a matter of time before they found out. One could never escape Federation Security, as Avon had discovered. Sester knew his days of service to the Empire were numbered, he was going to make sure he was the one doing the numbering. He may have to use his escape plan earlier than expected.

* * *

ORAC had noted the Federation's Electronics Surveillance Division's increased alert level, it had been watching for it. The Surveillance computers would save it a lot of work.

* * *

The rebels had not been able to undo Vila's conditioning yet. Professor Tarkson had not been able to free up the time it would require for the intense therapy needed. Everyone had been instructed not to mention anything which would serve as a trigger.

"I feel fine, " Vila had protested when Dr Alberay insisted on keeping him under observation for several more days, "nothing that several drinks can't fix."

To keep him away from Avon, Argus decided to task Vila to accompany the unit that was being sent to their primary safe house. The goal was to retrieve various items and to assess the security alert level within the dome. The rebels were making provisions to leave Earth.

"Consider it like a holiday, Vila. You're just there to observe, " Jenna suggested.

"My holidays don't usually come with guns and people who can snap you in two with their bare hands."

"Give them a chance Vila, they may grow on you, " she teased him. She knew he would not enjoy the mission. The ex-Federation military groups did not have much of a sense of humour but they would be able to keep him out of trouble.

* * *

Avon and Tess were hooked up to the computer network again, she had been bringing him into increasingly more complex systems. Yesterday, they had broken into a secure one for the first time. She had shown him the security system, the overrides and protocols. It was a simplistic one.

What she did not know was that Avon had been getting progressively ahead of her. He was aware of the security system and knew the mechanisms for overriding it even before she had pointed it out to him. He discovered that even though she had control links on him which prevented him from freeing himself from her presence, he could expand his electronic awareness beyond her perceptions, thus he could see junctions and potential hazards before she could and plan paths accordingly. The paths she chose were limited by how far her perceptions were. In comparing them, he could judge how far he had expanded beyond her. His awareness was expanding each time he entered the system, hers seemed to be static.

He was also able to see in a level of detail she did not, as a result, he recognized the passive monitors and was able to surreptitiously steer her around them without tripping them.

But he still could only observe, the limitations preventing any direct action by him were still in place. As his perception of the system increased, something at the edge of his awareness caught his attention, it always remained so much at the periphery that it had to be intentional. It was an electronic spy and had to be Federation.

_So is how they are monitoring me. _His awareness had not alerted it and he did not let Tess know that he was aware of it. In fact, he doubted she was aware of it herself. The Federation watched their own as much as they watched others.

* * *

"You've had access to the computer system for three days, have you found a way to communicate with ORAC without alerting Federation Security?" Argus asked. Avon had been waiting for this question. Argus and Jenna were in his cell after his latest computer session with Tess. She had just reported on their progress and was standing behind them by the door. Avon was seated on the bed, leaning against the wall.

Avon was tired, it showed on his face. His expanding ability in the system was offset by his increasing exhaustion after the sessions. He would have to do something about that soon, the increased ability was useless if he could not act on the system.

"Yes, " he replied to Argus's question.

Argus had not expected this answer right away, he had been expecting more resistance.

"Are you going to tell us how?" Argus asked. _Let's see what game you're playing._

"We will use the public message box systems. Those are some of the channels ORAC will be monitoring, ORAC's command code will be included in the message."

"But the Federation will probably be monitoring those channels, " Tess told him.

"Yes, this is why we are going to blanket all available systems with messages. The Federation is already on the alert for traffic of this sort, we are not going to disappoint them. In fact, we are going to give them so many that they will not be able to distinguish the real one from all the others and we will make the messages untraceable to a single source."

"Yes, we can handle that_, " _Tess told them, "but won't they know when ORAC only responds to one?"

"By using this tactic, ORAC will know to respond to all of them, in the same way. Only I will know which one is real."

"I would like to meet this ORAC."

"Yes."

"What is the code?" Argus was as direct as ever. He had not liked the way Avon said 'only I will know'. _He's concealing something; there's something else he's not telling us._

"No, " Avon responded, looking directly at the rebel leader.

"Tell us what the code is, " the warning in his voice was clear.

Avon looked away and closed his eyes, "Do you insist on doing this again? I am tired. Either get to what you're good at or leave so I can rest."

"Avon there is no need to do this, " Jenna told him.

"Do you think that giving you the code will increase or lessen my chances for survival?" He knew there was only one possible answer.

Jenna did not reply, she knew the answer too.

"Alright, if you lead us to ORAC, we will convince the others to let you live. Argus?"

The rebel leader thought for a few moments and then nodded. He did not add that Avon would be a prisoner for the rest of his life even if allowed to live. That knowledge could wait until after they got their hands on ORAC.


	15. Chapter 15

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Fifteen

Over the next few days, Avon prepared several hundred innocuous-sounding coded messages with a different code tag on each one. The only one of consequence contained ORAC's command frequency. _No point in using the command code _thought AvonORAC would recognize the frequency number and would respond with the real information to this message only. Anyone clever enough to recognize and use it as a communication frequency would receive no reply because the command code had not been given.

Tess sent the messages to all available public message boxes; each one was sent via a different route and bounced across several communication routing stations so they could not be traced. She was very good.

As they had expected, the Federation Surveillance Division instantly recognized the traffic and flagged them for immediate analysis and decoding but o no avail. The messages meant nothing and the real message among so many meaningless ones, also had no meaning.

The responses came exactly one day after the last message was sent.

Avon and Tess lay back on the reclined chairs in the computer room, he was monitoring as Tess accessed each message box. It was an added security measure in case of traps. They had checked over two thirds of them when Avon made his move, he had already read ORAC's reply to his coded message but he gave no indication of it.

"Tess, " the note in his voice stopped her cold, "don't stop. Act normally, there's something wrong. Continue what you're doing but slowly while I look around."

A few moments later, he spoke again. "It's there, just at the edge."

Tess tuned her awareness in the direction he indicated but noticed nothing. By now, she knew that Avon could see a little further into the network than she could. He had made no secret of it, that was why he was providing additional security as she checked the message boxes.

"I can't see anything. What is it?"

"I think it's a Federation ASP virus. It's been watching us for a couple of days, since you sent the messages, maybe even longer. I couldn't tell for sure until now. It's very clever, it appears as the background noise and it always stays right at the periphery. These security viruses are programmed to report back every few weeks, to avoid detection. We can't allow it to report back, we have to trap it in order to find out what it has found out so far about us."

"What do you suggest?" Tess could not see how that could be done. She had never attempted an offensive move using the bio-interface but in working with Avon the past week, she had come to appreciate and trust his abilities.

"Release me. At least allow me enough freedom to chase it, you can remain tethered and follow every move I make but you need to do everything I tell you to, it's essential otherwise we will lose it."

She didn't have a choice. She knew that she would have no chance but Avon did.

She concentrated and released the links which would allow him to initiate movement on his own. "Alright, it's done."

"Now I want you to make some adjustments to the hand unit." He knew the guards would never allow him to tamper with the unit.

She followed his precise instructions. Sato had been the computer engineer, but she knew enough about circuitry to follow instructions.

"What will this do?" she asked.

"It will give us some added abilities and a place to store our little friend once we've trapped it. Ready?"

"Lead the way."

For the next half hour, Avon maneuvered carefully. Tess followed his orders without question. It was like an intricate game of chess, he had to trap it before the ASP realized it was in trouble and either self-destructed or sent a warning to the control network. The only way to do that was to back it into an electronic equivalent of a corner, but make it seem normal.

In order to do this, Avon had expanded his awareness to it's outermost limits. He knew he was taxing his energy beyond what the drugs were allowing him and physically he was at the point of collapse. Having experienced this point many times in the past year, he knew how much longer he could hold out.

Finally, the trap was sprung. The ASP had a protective mechanism and instantly struck back but Avon had prepared for this, it was one of the modifications he had instructed Tess to make to the hand-unit; it provided a defensive shielding capability of sorts. He countered with the shield and pushed the ASP towards the hand-unit's portal. The shield was too weak to provide effective protection for both of them, it was bound by the limitations of the hand unit. Avon used the shield to protect Tess. Pain blasted his mind as he corralled the electronic virus into the place he had Tess prepare earlier.

"Detach the hand unit now!" he shouted to her as his heart stopped.

* * *

"How is he doing doctor?" Jenna asked. Tess had already given them her report of what happened and Argus was questioning her further in a nearby meeting room.

"He's very weak, his heart stopped because he pushed beyond the limits of energy we were allowing him and his mind also appears to have received severe shock from some kind of attack of which I am unfamiliar."

She nodded, Avon had risked his own life in order to save them. He had done that before, on the _Liberator_ but usually he had something to gain as well. She had no doubt that this time was no exception but one thing it did tell her, as with the _Liberator_ group, Avon had judged it more advantageous to help them. A reluctantly helpful Avon had proven very useful for Blake. She hoped that Argus would also see this, sometimes the rebel leader could be very stubborn.

Approaching the door to the meeting room, Jenna heard Tess talking.

"No, I was not able to see the ASP until he cornered it. He has a larger awareness within the network than I have but I already knew that, he never kept it a secret."

"And you didn't see fit to tell us? I had asked you to report if he got past you, " Argus was berating her but inwardly he was kicking himself for not watching them more closely.

"You asked me to tell you if he ever got beyond my control, there was never any danger of that. He couldn't do anything other than observe, the limits were still in place. In the time I worked with him, he never once did anything that even hinted that he was trying to harm us. He always did exactly what I told him to and he never tried to stretch the boundaries of his restrictions."

"Except today."

"But that was different, there was real danger if the ASP had been allowed to continue and to report back what it had gathered. He only asked me to release his ability to initiate movement along the network, everything else was still within my control. I was still linked to him, there was nowhere he could go without my being able to monitor his movements."

"What about the modifications to the hand unit. You said that he was able to use a shield of some sort, that tells me that he was able to initiate action, not just movement."

"Yes, I'm not an engineer but he gave me instructions to adapt some of the circuits to produce an electronic shield of some kind. He was able to control it because it was new, I had not had the opportunity to place limits on it. Besides we didn't have time. Look, Argus, if I hadn't , I would probably be where he is now. When the ASP realized it was trapped, it struck back. Avon used the shield to protect me and he took most of the blast himself."

Jenna interjected, "That's true Argus. Dr Alberay says that Avon has sustained a type of shock, an attack of some kind that he is unfamiliar with."

"How is he?" Tess asked, the concern in her voice was evident.

"The doctor is trying to stabilize him. His heart stopped because he pushed past the limits of the drugs and his system collapsed."

"He must have felt what it was doing to him but he never gave up, never backed off, " Tess said.

Still mistrusting, Argus said, "He knew what would happen if the Federation ever got their hands on him again. He had as much of a reason for stopping the ASP as we did."

"But he didn't need to save me."

"He made a calculated risk that he was able to withstand more of the attack than you. He is trying to convince us that we can trust him, that is all, " he told her.

_You are clever Avon. If Tess had been hurt, I would have killed you myself._

Jenna disagreed. "Argus, Avon never needed anyone to trust him and he never trusted anyone; he never hid that. In that respect, he is very straight forward but you are right when you said that he calculates the risk, Blake told me that once, Avon calculates the odds; that is why he stayed with us, it was more advantageous for him to work with us. I think he has made that decision with us and if that's true then we have gained a very valuable resource."

"You mean, he will work for us?" Argus asked skeptically.

"No, Avon will never work for anyone except himself and he does not accept other people's leadership but he will follow out of self-interest."

Argus was getting a clearer picture. Tess trusted Avon and Jenna did not, but was willing to work with him. Avon had maneuvered it skillfully.

Argus was grudgingly inclined to accept Jenna's assessment but with certain reservations. He agreed that Avon was a man who worked the angles and with the state of things the way they were, with the entire universe out for the analyst's head, it was much safer for him to work with them, he had no choice.

_I will make sure of that._

Argus still wasn't sure if always having to watch their backs was worth having this dangerous man working with them.

"You realize Jenna, that even if Avon's account of the events at Gauda Prime is the real one, he still killed Blake, nothing can change that. It may have been a mistake but the others will always hold him responsible."

"I know."

"I still hold him responsible."

She nodded.

"That means that for his own sake, he can never be allowed to go free. The others may accept that we will not kill him but the moment he leaves, he will be free game for anyone holding a grudge."

"He's used to being hunted."

"By everyone?"

"He will see it as a form of slavery, he will never accept it, he would rather die."

"You have a suggestion?"

"We need to make it worth his while if he is to stay and work with us."

Argus nodded his agreement, "Yes."

"That means that we will have to give him some level of freedom."

Under the doctor's care, Avon recuperated quickly. After a week, he was able to be returned to his cell but this time it was different. The restraints were no longer used and the drug level had been decreased. They were allowing him greater freedom of movement, although he was still constantly under guard.

He was now helping Tess to infiltrate the Federation computer network. He had greater freedom there too and she was following his lead but he was still not allowed to take any direct action on the system..

His calculations had been correct, it was now a matter of how much Sester would be willing to risk with the ASP destroyed. The strategist could put it down to an unfortunate accident, misjudging Avon's ability with the bio-interface but would the progression of the scenario, seemingly in the direction they were hoping for, be worth the risk of losing the ASP monitor. So far it seemed that it was.

Avon had reviewed all of the response messages sent by ORAC. The one he was interested had a single coded sequence. DSVV

It was confirmation that the Federation had risked a simulation that was real enough to allow him access to the genuine communications network. Only the real ORAC would have known the command frequency and the content of the message was the additional failsafe. He had never revealed to anyone his standing order to ORAC to find another Deep Space Vehicle like the _Liberator_.

This added a new element to his plans, the finding of the DSV had been fortuitous; the problem of retrieving ORAC and escaping had just become easier. But he would have to be careful, the ship would not have his advanced anti-detector screen which prevented anything except close-range visual scanners from discovering it. The Federation must not find the ship. With both the DSV and ORAC, Servalan would become invincible, he could not allow that to happen.

He would lead them to Gauda Prime, it was the next logical step from their perspective. It would keep Sester from ending the simulation. There were many avenues for opportunities to present themselves between Earth and the outer sector, he would be ready.


	16. Chapter 16

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Sixteen

_Fools. _Sester had been reading the latest report from Tarvin of Central Security. Two fatal mistakes had been made; no one had told him about the bio-interface technology and no one informed him that one of the rebels had access to and had obtained two of the units.

He had just received some limited classified information about this powerful new technology. By not telling him, it was obvious that Central Security themselves had not known the danger of having such technology in Avon's hands.

It had to be clear now, even to their limited imaginations, what the danger was. With it, Avon had detected and destroyed the ASP. Sester had no doubt that it had been Avon.

He had appreciated Avon's strategy in flooding the public message system so that they could not tell which message was the real one. Genius recognized that the simplest strategies were often the most successful. Complexity often tends to unravel easily to the unexpected.

One thing the various activities did tell him, Avon was working with the rebels. Even with these unexpected developments, progress had been made. From Tarkson's reports, he knew that Avon did not trust the rebels, but a couple of the rebels were beginning to trust him. Trust had been required as the next step, that appeared to have been achieved.

Later he contacted Servalan and gave her a full report.

"You are sure it was Avon who destroyed the ASP virus?" she asked.

"No question."

_She sounds pleased. Almost proud. Interesting._

"And you are sure we do not need to extract him yet?"

"Not yet, it is a risk but I believe it is an acceptable one. Events are still progressing as I have predicted. We know where they are and we have Professor Tarkson working for us. We can pick Avon up at any time."

"You are playing a hazardous game, Sester. Avon is a dangerous man."

"Those are the only games worth playing Madame President but it is hardly a fair game, since we have the ace. The Federation holds Gauda Prime, no matter what move he makes that is a fact he cannot change."

"Very well, I will tell Senior Controller Tarvin to stand down from any precipitate action. And Sester."

"Yes Madame President?"

"You will make sure you don't lose, won't you?"

* * *

After Sester signed off, Servalan picked up the small control box on her desk. She smiled. _Avon, Avon, when will you ever learn. I always get what I want in the end._

* * *

Several days later, Avon requested to speak to Argus and Jenna. "I have to send another set of messages."

"Why should we let you do that?" Argus asked warily.

Avon never seemed fazed by Argus's open suspicion. "ORAC has to be informed that we are coming, that way it can warn us of Federation defenses at Gauda Prime."

"You remember where ORAC is." Jenna realized the implications of what he just said.

"Yes approximately, I remember general landmarks, I do not have specific coordinates. Remember it has been along time and there was no locator fix. I will have to go to the planet."

"What aren't you telling us?" Argus asked.

Avon smiled. "There is however, a problem."

"Which is?"

"Servalan has ORAC's activator key."

"Of course, " Jenna put her hand to her head, "I'd almost forgotten about the key."

"Servalan took it after I was taken on Gauda Prime."

"You never mentioned a key before Jenna, " Argus told her.

"It's been so long, I had forgotten. In order to use ORAC, we need the activator key."

Argus turned to Avon, he was getting a good idea as to how Avon's mind worked.

"You have a way around this problem, don't you? A way that doesn't involve storming into Servalan's headquarters and taking the key by force, otherwise you would have mentioned this before."

"Naturally, " Avon replied. _So you are brighter than you look_. "I will need a few tools and some components."

From what Avon understood, the rebel group had lost their sole electronics engineer during the attack on the Federation Special Detention Centre. The others only had basic electronics and circuitry knowledge. It was a risk but a slight one.

Once the rebels obtained the parts, and with Tess monitoring, he started building an activator unit. He had not told them that it was not possible to duplicate ORAC's activator key else he would have done it when he was back on the _Liberator_. The unit he was building was an activator of sorts. It serve the purposes of the activator in that it was a transmitter which operated on ORAC's command frequency. He could interact with and give orders to ORAC using it. It would have limited range, that could not be helped. He knew he could mask the purpose of the transmitter components, but they could only be fooled so far. It meant he would have to be in orbit over the planet in order to use it.

* * *

Vila's rebel group returned from their reconnaissance mission. They reported that preparations had been made to leave Earth aboard a produce transport to a nearby sector. It would be ready to depart in two days. Somewhere along the filed flight course they would intersect with the rebel space cruiser and Captain Sovan.

Professor Tarkson had returned and with Vila's unenthusiastic participation, they had started his deprogramming sessions. His mind seemed to go blank every time he tried to remember anything other than the specific images surrounding Gauda Prime, but it no longer triggered a violent response, only the headaches.

* * *

"He's as good with electronics as he is with programming and manipulating the system, " Tess reported to Argus and Tess in the meeting room.

"Nothing suspicious?" Argus asked. _You are still fascinated with him aren't you?_

"No. Of course, without Sato, I cannot tell for certain."

"Keep an eye on him, Tess. Don't be blinded by his abilities. That's all."

"I will, " she told him as she left the room.

"You're worried about her aren't you?" Jenna asked. She knew him well enough by now to recognize the concern on his face.

"She has a tendency to be enthusiastic, especially when she runs across someone she can share her abilities with, it tends to dull her common sense and with Avon, she has a lot to be enthusiastic about."

"If I didn't know you better, I would say you were jealous."

"Not jealous, protective. Tess is like a little sister. If he uses her, I will take him apart one small piece at a time. In some ways, she is naïve, she's never met anyone quite as dangerous as he is. What do you think about this activator he is building?"

"Tess was right when she said that Avon is as much of a genius at electronics as he is with the programming. It may be just as it seems, he is building an activator unit. But with Avon, things are never that simple."

"I completely agree. I think I'll have a little talk with Vila."

She nodded, "That's a good idea."

"There's something else we have to be careful of. So far we've been able to keep a low profile but now that we have Avon, we have attracted a level of attention from Federation Security we never had to deal with before, in particular, Servalan. From what you've told me, it is extremely unhealthy to be in her sights, especially now that she is the supreme ruler of the Federated Worlds. We can never let her have ORAC or Avon, either one helping her would be disastrous for the rebel movement. It would be wiser to destroy them than to risk either one falling into her hands."

"You're saying that you want to kill Avon after he leads us to ORAC?"

"No, I see that he is an extremely valuable asset, I understand why Blake went to such great lengths to keep him with the _Liberator_. As long as we can control him it will be advantageous to have him working for us but if at any point we are in danger of losing him to Servalan, he must be killed."

"He would never help Servalan."

"I'd rather not run that risk."

* * *

ORAC had picked up Avon's second coded message that the rebels would enter Gauda Prime orbit in two standard weeks. Avon had also requested the security status on the planet. ORAC had reported a strong Federation presence on Gauda Prime in the reply message. There was an additional piece of information it had included, which Avon had not asked for. It was an attempt to warn him that the rebel group had been infiltrated and to be careful.

* * *

Avon had completed work the on the activator on board the rebel cruiser _Carver_, now bound for Gauda Prime. The rebels had been impatient, they had not been willing to wait. Idealists didn't have much sense. He would have warned them if they had been inclined to listen but knowing their mistrust of him, he did not bother.

His own plans were made, all he needed was access to the fast scout shuttle. Timing was essential. Once he was within the Deep Space Vehicle's forcewall, he would be able to dock and board without much difficulty and with access to the teleport system onboard the DSV, retrieving ORAC would be considerably easier.

His shadows still had to be dealt with, the two guards assigned to accompany him wherever he went, but he was working on it.

To increase their chances, and his own, he had been helping Tess.

Avon had suggested to Tess that it would be useful to convert the former Federation vessel back into a Federation cruiser, at least temporarily. It would increase their chances at survival once they entered the Gauda Prime system. Tess had brought the idea to Argus.

"The Federation controls Gauda Prime, Argus and we have a ship which can pass as a Federation vessel, we can use that to our advantage."

It was a creative suggestion and gave them some tactical leeway. Argus agreed and the ship had been returned back to it's original appearance. Avon was now helping Tess to set up a masking beacon which would identify the ship as Federation and fake electronic orders to justify their arrival.

Tess was clearly fascinated by him. Avon had never understood why human beings insisted on attaching irrational emotions to people who exhibited extraordinary abilities. There were people he admired, such as Ensor, ORAC's creator but there was no emotion involved. An appreciation for talent and genius was natural, and helped to identify who was a more useful tool, or a more dangerous opponent.

Tess's enthusiasm with technology was contagious. She had a first-rate mind and a certain innocence in the way she trusted his abilities. He found himself helping her to expand her abilities with the bio-interface. In particular, he trained her to recognize the passive monitors which she did not seem to be aware of. It was an ability which would increase her survival rate if she insisted on continuing with the rebels.

* * *

A week after ORAC sent the reply, additional Federation elite assault troops had arrived and the entire security infrastructure had gone into heightened preparation mode. ORAC had sent a third message indicating danger but it knew that there was slim chance that it had been picked up, Avon had not expected an additional reply.

Now, things were quiet. The Federation had set its traps and like a spider, was waiting for it's prey.

Originally, ORAC had planned to position the Deep Space Vehicle behind the planet's moon and as close to it's surface as possible the day before Avon and the rebels were due to arrive. The Deep Space Vehicle would continue to hide in charged asteroid cluster just outside the sector until then. But newly arrived Federation pursuit ships were currently using the moon for the same purpose. ORAC adjusted it's strategy to a much less optimal solution, the options and the odds had diminished considerably. The ASP virus had done considerable damage and the rebels had not been careful enough.

There was a piece of information which Avon, and in particular the rebels with him, would have found useful and would have alarmed them.

* * *

"I have good news Madame President, the entire Earth rebel network associated with the Argus group has been neutralized. Simultaneous strikes took them completely by surprise." Controller Tarvin reported to Servalan, "They are all either dead or in Federation custody."

"How deep did they infiltrate into Federation Landforce Command?"

"We have a list of nine so far although none at the command-level.. The nine are currently undergoing interrogation; I will send you the preliminary report by the end of the day."

"And the preparations at Gauda Prime?"

"The additional assault troops are in place and pursuit ships have been positioned behind the planet's moon. Everything is ready for the arrival of the rebels."

"You are sure that none of the rebels had a chance to send a message out?"

"Certain. We used the blockers to make sure that nothing could be broadcast out and we shut down the sections of the CompComm network they had access to."

"Good. Keep me informed."

"Yes Madame President."


	17. Chapter 17

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Seventeen

Anyone watching Avon would not have noticed but he was worried; he could not find the activator key and the rebel ship was within two standard hours of entering G-P orbit. He had been checking the tools he required to escape when he discovered that the key was missing.

The guards had become lazier as the weeks progressed and he had not posed a threat. Argus and Jenna seemed to trust him with more freedom. Followers followed the examples of their leaders and as a result his guards had lagged further behind when following him and did not always pay attention. Besides, they did not see where he could escape to within the confines of the ship. _Such limited imagination. _This was an error he was going to exploit in order to escape. He had also lifted a sonic disruptor.

The plan had been to distract Tess by asking her to retrieve a tool just as they were exiting the ship's workshop. Before the guards had a chance to follow him out, he would disrupt the door sensors so that they would close automatically and not reopen until the automatic reset completed. That would give him just enough time to disable the door panel control.

Down the corridor, just like with the prison ship London, was a maintenance access hatch. The maintenance channel ran the entire length of the ship and opened up just outside the shuttle bay doors. Once there, he would have no problems commandeering the scout shuttle and knocking out any computer overrides required to open the shuttle launch doors.

It had to occur just as they entered orbit, else he would not be able to contact ORAC using the limited range of the transmitter and tell it to position the Deep Space Vehicle to pick him up.

But nothing could happen without the activator key and it was missing.

"Avon, we need you on the flight deck." It was Jenna calling over the ship's intercom system.

* * *

When Avon arrived, Jenna asked, "Where were you? Tess is already set to break into the orbital surveillance system." They were to build in a disruptor program which when activated would knock out the entire surveillance computer system. It was a fallback weapon, in case they needed it. Again it had been Avon's idea, communicated through Tess.

Avon went to join Tess who was already hooked into the ship's system.

"Did you lose this?" Vila asked him as he passed by. The thief held up the activator key. "You must have dropped it, " he added, "I'll hang onto it until you're done, shall I?"

"Of course_, " _Avon replied, without a hint of reaction. He didn't have much choice.

He understood, Vila, the thief had 'lifted' the activator key. It must have been under Argus's orders. There were two possibilities, one was that Argus was making sure he had no possibility of access to ORAC and had asked for the key to be retrieved earlier, the other possibility was that they had guessed his escape plan.

The most likely possibility was the first one.

Avon's mind went into overdrive as he applied himself to finding a solution to this new state of events. He still held the vital information, no one knew ORAC's location.

He needed ORAC in order to call the DSV to extract him. There was also one additional piece of information they did not have, the sole remaining teleport bracelet from the original _Liberator_, the one Vila had teleported down with on Terminal, he had stored it inside the ORAC unit. It was a contingency for when ORAC would find another Deep Space Vehicle.

He had to get the transmitter back, they would be highly suspicious if he asked to send another communication using the public message box. Without a way to communicate with ORAC, he was stuck. He would have to risk leading them to ORAC. Having gotten this far, they would kill him if he did not but at least they would not be able to use it. They did not know the true purpose of the device he had built and even if they did, they did not have ORAC's command code.

With a shock, he realized something. At some point, he had started believing that this group was what they seemed, a band of rebels and not some Federation trick by the psychostrategist. No one as smart as Sester would have allowed him such a dangerous tool as the bio-interface unit.

Then there was the breakdown incident with Vila, when he accused Avon of trying to kill him in the autoshuttle. Neither one of them had ever discussed that incident with anyone but what had convinced Avon was ORAC's last cryptic communiqué that the group had been infiltrated. An enemy does not infiltrate itself.

He still did not trust them, he needed to get away and think and he had no interest in joining another band of idealists out to get themselves killed in order to save the rabble. He wanted to be alone with ORAC and the Deep Space Vehicle. Free and safe, not coerced or manipulated. With the nightmare of the past year he had had enough.

So things had not changed, he needed to escape and he needed ORAC for that.

* * *

The Gauda Prime port authority seemed to accept their Federation status. Their fast shuttle had been allowed to enter into the lower flight traffic zone. They landed close to the underground silo. Captain Sovan and his former pirate group stayed onboard _The_ _Carver_ to monitor planetary movements.

Avon, Argus, Jenna, Vila, Tess and Prake's group landed on the planet and were making their way through the dense jungle. 624 group had been left to guard the shuttle.

"Are you getting the same uneasy feeling I'm getting?" Vila asked them as they followed Avon to where he had hidden ORAC. Things had been too easy, just like on Singoa, when they landed into a Federation trap. Things had been quiet then too, before everything fell apart.

"You're just remembering what happened the last time Vila, " Jenna suggested, "and besides, you always get a bad feeling."

"Yes and look what happened that time."

Avon signaled them to stop, he was getting his bearings, trying to remember. He did not remember this much quiet.

They were standing beside an old fort made of large granite-like blocks. The walls were at least one standard unit in thickness, it had seen better times. Ancient wars had caused holes of various sizes in the walls. Avon seemed to be pacing his steps carefully, suddenly he bent down. There was a hand-sized hole near the base of the wall.

"Give me the laser cutter."

"Where is ORAC?" Argus asked. He knew that the longer they stayed in one area, the more risk they took of being discovered.

"Behind this wall, " Avon told him.

Argus looked at the wall, it did not seem possible, other than a small hole near the base, there did not appear to be a place to conceal anything and definitely not something as large as ORAC.

"What trick is this?" Argus asked suspiciously.

"Are you saying it's behind this wall? How did you get it inside?" Jenna asked.

Avon looked at Vila, "Molecular reduction."

"Oh he means a stabilized atomic implosion, " Vila said as he remembered where he heard the same words before.

They all stared at him in astonishment.

"I know things." Vila looked offended and guilty. He did not want them to find out that he and Avon had tricked ORAC into reducing it's size so that they could sneak it down to Freedom City in order to break the casino there. They had not seen fit to tell Blake, Jenna and Cally, who had been on a mission to find out the location of Star One.

Avon explained, "ORAC can reduce it's size for a limited period of time without impairing it's function. By reducing it's size small enough, it can fit into any aperture. There is a cavity behind this hole which is large enough for a full-size ORAC."

"Clever. No wonder the Federation was never able to find it and why no one accidently stumbled on it, " Argus was impressed despite himself.

Avon suggested, "Let's get on with it."

Argus handed the laser cutter to Avon. Soon a large rectangular shape was cut into the wall and sectioned, they removed each piece carefully. Behind the wall lay the object everyone was looking for, ORAC. Argus took it out and lay it on the ground.

"Try the key" Argus told Vila.

Vila removed the activator from his tool bag and fit it into the key slot.

"ORAC, " Jenna addressed the computer unit.

They all looked at it expectantly, waiting for a response which did not come.

Vila gave the computer a whack on the side, "Come on ORAC, say something. I always knew you would be more useful as a drinks dispenser."

Still nothing. Avon began examining the interior of the computer. "I need to get ORAC back to the workshop. Some of the components may have suffered damage over the past year."

"It could have been rats, " Vila volunteered.

"Don't be a fool, " Avon said. If it had been vermin, they would have left much more of a mess, that was clearly not the case.

"Rats would be an improvement, " remarked Vila.

"Alright. Let's head back to the shuttle, " Argus told them. He removed the activator key and handed it to Vila. One of Prake's men picked up ORAC.

Little did they know that Vila had been right when he said that things were too quiet. While Argus's group had been retrieving ORAC, the Federation trap had sprung. Elite assault troops had stealthily moved in around the shuttle and taken out 624 group. The troops were now masquerading as the rebels.

As they approached the shuttle, Argus signaled the shuttle guards. One of them waved back indicating the all clear.

Argus reacted instantly, dropping to the ground, "Everyone down!" He began firing. It had been a Federation military signal response. The rebels did not use the same response signals.

Everyone began firing their weapons. Men fell, both rebels and Federation. The rebels were surrounded, pulse rifle flares and laser tracers filled the air.

Argus's wristcomm buzzed.

Captain Sovan's voice crackled through static, "Argus."

Argus answered, "We're a little busy at the moment Sovan, we've just run into an ambush."

"We have our own problems up here, two Federation pursuit ships just appeared. We're under attack."

"Get the ship out of there, " Argus told him. There was no response, only static. "Sovan?"

_A two-pronged attack, someone was expecting us. We need to get back to the ship, _thought Argus.

One of Avon's guards was shot and his rifle flew out of his hands; he was dead before he hit the ground. Avon picked up the rifle and began firing.

There was an explosion far above them, all heads turned upwards to watch it. Trails of debris were visible.

Argus yelled into his wristcomm, "Sovan! Respond."

The rebels knew what the explosion likely meant, they had not only fallen into an ambush but now they were trapped on the planet with no means of escape.

"Tess!" Jenna cried out. There was a large growing red patch in the middle of the young woman's chest, she had just been hit in the crossfire.

Argus and Avon rushed over, firing as they moved. Jenna was checking her pulse.

"She needs immediate medical attention, " she told them.

Tess was losing blood quickly and there was nothing they could do, not where they were.

Someone yelled out, "Hold your fire!" For some reason, everyone complied. The voice sounded familiar to Avon.

"Avon, " the voice called out again. It was Sester. "You're an intelligent man, Avon. You're surrounded, there are no options. Your ship has been destroyed and there is nowhere to go."

The simulation was at an end and the Federation had won.

Avon looked down at Tess. She was pale, the blood stain had spread over most of her chest.

"No, " he said quietly. There was a determination in his voice. "Pick her up and get ORAC, " he commanded the rebels. His face was expressionless, but his voice and his eyes held the same dangerous, unyielding look which he had once used on Tarrant.

Suddenly he stood up and rushed the Federation troops, taking out three before anyone had a chance to react. Argus ran after him, and then the rest of the group, two of them carrying Tess, as they blazed their way to the shuttle. Avon rushed into the scout ship and began making preparations.

Argus provided cover fire for the others from the shuttle entrance.

"Get everyone onboard, " Avon told him.

Vila, carrying ORAC and Jenna rushed in. Following fast on their heels, two of the rebels brought in Tess and strapped her into an empty seat. Heavy pulse rifle fire hit the ship's hull.

"Prake, get your men inside, " Argus told the other rebel leader.

"Argus, go! We'll provide cover fire! You have to protect the assets! Find a way off the planet. Go!"

The rebel group resolutely ranged themselves to protect the shuttle.

Argus looked at the other rebel leader and nodded in salute. He punched the door panel. The shuttle door closed.

"Avon, whatever you're going to do, do it now!"

"It's up to you, " Avon looked at Jenna, who had seated herself in the pilot's chair. Avon pulled a series of levers, in response the engines roared into life. "Just get us into orbit. Everyone else, strap yourselves in."

Jenna exclaimed, "Avon, we don't have the cruiser anymore. Going into orbit would be suicide. The best course would be to fly as far and as fast as we can, lose any Federation flyers and hide until we can find a way off-planet."

"Just get us into orbit, " he told her again.

He punched two buttons simultaneously. The sublight engines and the specially adapted thrust engines immediately provided power. He had made adjustments to balance the engines so that the tremendous force generated would not tear the ship apart. The scout shuttle shot up into the sky and within seconds it was no longer in view of the ground.

As they approached orbital height, Avon told Vila, "Give me the activator key."

Vila looked to Argus.

Avon said urgently, "Tess needs medical attention, give me the key!"

Argus nodded, he knew Avon was up to something but he knew that it was probably their only chance for survival. Avon took the activator, turned on the transmitter and spoke into it.

"ORAC, command code gamma two delta three six four."

"Yes Avon, " the computer responded.

The others looked in shock at ORAC.

"How close is the DSV?"

"It is currently behind the Gauda Prime moon."

As the Federation pursuit ships were in the process of fighting and finally destroying the rebel cruiser, ORAC had directed the DSV to leave the asteroid cluster it had been hiding in. At standard by twelve, it had just arrived in a hidden position behind the moon, which the pursuit ships had just vacated. In the confusion of the battle, no one had noticed it's approach.

"Direct it here immediately and relay my commands to the ship. Put up the forcewall, put battle and navigation computers online, evasive action only. Do not return fire. Calculate active escape trajectories."

"Yes Avon."

"What's going on?" Argus asked suspiciously. He knew now that Avon had been tricking them all along.

Avon ignored his question, "Lock the inner hatches. Positive pressure."

"Complete."

"Equalize hold pressure."

"Battle computers? Forcewall? Equalize hold pressure?" Vila repeated, confused, "That sounds like…"

"It is a Deep Space Vehicle built by the Altans, just like the _Liberator_."

"The _Liberator_?" Jenna asked, one part incredulous and one part a growing but disbelieving hope. She had many questions but now was not the time.

"There, " Avon pointed to a growing shape on the screen. It was a familiar welcome shape.

Right behind it were also other recognizable and less friendly shapes, two Federation pursuit ships. Jenna moved the scout shuttle towards the DSV, directly in front of the hold doors and as close to the forcewall as possible.

The pursuit ships fired, plasma tracers raced towards the Deep Space Vehicle.

"Get ready Jenna. ORAC, once the plasma bolts hit open the main locks and drop the forcewall."

"Of course. That was evident." The attitude didn't take long to show itself.

"Pleasant as always ORAC"

"I fail to see the relevance of that statement."

"You never do. Just follow the instructions."

"Very well, " the computer replied begrudgingly.

The plasma bolts hit the forcewall. They could feel the ripple effect of the blasts against the forcewall.

"Now, " said Avon calmly.

The forcewall disintegrated, the hold doors began to open.

Jenna moved the shuttle forward, once it cleared the forcewall perimeter, Avon instructed, "ORAC, raise the forcewall." It was none too soon, another two plasma bolts had been fired and were making their way towards them. They hit just as the shuttle approached the rim of the hold entrance. Jenna pulled up quickly, stopping their approach before they hit the suddenly shifted edge.

"My life just flashed before my eyes, " Vila declared, he had been holding his breath.

"How dull for you, " Avon remarked.

Jenna moved the shuttle forward again; they docked safely this time.

"ORAC, close main locks. Transfer to inner hold number one."

As the shuttle came to a stop inside inner hold number one, Argus told Avon and Jenna, "Get the ship out of here. We'll take care of Tess"

The ship rocked with the force of two more plasma bolts. Jenna and Avon rushed to the flight deck with ORAC. Vila and Argus remained behind to transfer Tess to the medical bay.

Once on the flight deck, Avon placed ORAC down on a padded bench in the command conference area.

"ORAC, instruct the ship computer to record our voice prints."

"It's about time. Perhaps I can get back to my own projects now. You have monopolized my time far too long."

"Now ORAC."

"The Zen computer is already waiting your instructions."

"This one is called Zen too?"

"Zen, meaning the organizer, the coordinator, the arranger, the..."

"Of course. That's enough ORAC. Zen, this is Kerr Avon, " Avon paused for Jenna.

"And Jenna Stannis."

"Register our voice prints, from now on you will obey our requests and commands. You will no longer respond to anyone who is not registered. Zen, indicate confirmation."

"Confirmed, " a familiar tired-sounding voice responded.

Avon went to the systems console to check on energy reserves, "Energy banks one and two depleted. Drawing on bank three. All other banks at full charge. Zen, have the battle and navigation computers plotted the optimal escape route away from all Federation attack ships?"

"Course plotted."

"Initiate evasion course. Speed, standard by ten."

"Confirmed."

* * *

As the ship sped away from their pursuers, Argus and Vila were trying to save Tess. They had put her on the bio-bed in the surgery unit and were attempting to stop the bleeding. It was no good, even the advanced medical equipment could not save her. If Dr. Alberay had been there, his chances would also have been slim. The injuries had been too severe and had been left untreated too long. She would have stood a chance if she had been treated immediately.

"Argus, " Tess called his name. They could barely hear her voice.

Argus bent down. "Don't blame Avon, " she told him, "it wasn't his fault."

He became angry, "If he hadn't tricked us." _Tess why do you still insist on protecting him? He's killed you._

"He didn't trust us, he couldn't trust anyone after what they did to him and you didn't trust him. Gauda Prime was always a trap. You have to see that. The Federation knew we had to go there, we didn't have a choice. None of us did."

Argus shook his head. His mind understood but his heart wanted to hold Avon responsible. It would be along time before he would be able to resolve the two.

"Vila."

"Yes, Tess?" Vila was distraught.

"Do you have my satchel?"

Her equipment bag with the bio-interface and computer hand-unit had been dropped on a table near the bio-bed.

"It's right here" he took if off the table and handed it to her.

"No. Give it to Avon, " she told him.

He clutched the bag and nodded.

"You have Avon, ORAC, and the best ship in the known worlds. Don't disappoint me big brother, " she looked at Argus, "I just wish I could see it." With that she died.

Argus was frozen. Someone would pay and he knew who that someone should be.


	18. Chapter 18

**New Patterns and Old Friends**

Chapter Eighteen

After they were clear of danger, Avon and Jenna began making a comprehensive check of their newly acquired ship.

Avon stood in front of the Zen computer's visual interface and requested "Zen, all flight deck systems, full status checks. Standard priority listings."

"Confirm standard priority listing."

"Begin."

As Zen began the report listing, Argus and Vila entered the flight deck. Avon had his back to them, listening intently to the report and entering values into a hand unit.

Argus nodded silently to Vila, who again palmed the activator unit Avon had left near his flight console.

"Argus?" Jenna had looked up from her console and spotted them. The looks on their faces gave her alarm. "How is Tess?"

"Zen, pause" Avon stopped the computer systems check and turned to listen.

Argus did not reply. He did not make a sound but his very presence radiated something disturbing.

"Vila?"

"She died, Jenna, we were too late, there was nothing we could do, " he replied. The grief on his face was apparent.

They all fell silent. Tears started flowing down Jenna's face.

"Tess wanted you to have this." Vila walked over to Avon and handed him the equipment bag. It was received without a word.

Argus asked, "What's our status? Where are the Federation pursuit ships?" There was no emotion in his voice.

Avon informed him, "We are safe for now, we managed to outrun them. Jenna and I are doing a full systems check."

Argus brought his right hand out from behind his back, he was holding a laser pistol, he pointed it at Avon.

"Good. Then we have time to deal with a few things."

Jenna exclaimed, "Argus, what are you doing? Avon saved our lives."

"Yes, and it's how he did it which bothers me." He was speaking to Jenna, but his eyes were on Avon.

"We used each other Argus, " Avon told him as he moved towards his flight console. "That is all." He was still holding Tess's equipment bag.

"You deceived us about ORAC, " Argus accused him.

"You are trying to act surprised." Avon noted dispassionately.

"I will never trust you."

"I'm glad things are clear. Can I get back to the systems check now?"

"Tess died!" Argus was shouting, his gun hand did not waiver, "Did you not hear?"

"I have excellent hearing."

"You don't care for anyone except yourself, do you?"

"Raising your voice will not bring her back and neither will hysterics." He did not see the activator, again. He looked at Vila, who was trying to avoid his eyes.

Avon sighed. "Argus, you're an idealist. Do what idealists do and make sure Tess's sacrifice was not in vain."

"And what are you going to do?"

Avon stared at him, "I'm going to get back to the systems check." He walked back to the visual interface.

"Are you going to answer my question?" Argus pressed the issue.

Avon turned back to him. "I am going to go somewhere the Federation will never be able to find me."

"And how do you think you can do that without ORAC and this ship?" Argus asked.

"Even if you avoid being recaptured by the Federation, do you think you can escape the entire known worlds? Everyone thinks you betrayed and killed Blake. They think you sold out the entire rebel movement."

"Can we skip the preamble and get to the point? I assume you do have a point and that this is not just an irrational display of grief."

"You will help us destroy the Federation, or I will make sure that you will be hunted for the rest of your life, no place will be safe for you."

Avon looked at him emotionlessly, "I'm disappointed, Argus. Jenna and Vila should have told you by now that I do not respond to threat."

"And what if I told you that it is safer for us if I killed you right now, instead of letting you go free?"

"That is not the reason you want to kill me."

"You're right. It's not, " Argus prepared to fire at him.

Avon waited. He could see the emotions as they pass over the other man's face.

Argus glared at him, it was a contest of wills but it wasn't between Avon and Argus. It was a battle between Argus's anger, grief and desire for vengeance and his realization that they needed Avon. He was first and foremost a leader and like Blake before him, he realized that, a helpful Avon, regardless of motive, was a powerful ally.

_You have Avon, ORAC, and the best ship in the known worlds. Don't disappoint me big brother_.

Argus lowered the gun, the anger and grief he would have to deal with later, and the vengeance. There were many more important demands on their attention, personal issues would have to pushed aside, for now.

"Help us bring down the Federation, and I will ensure your name is cleared, " he offered.

"And ORAC and the Deep Space Vehicle?"

"That can be discuss when the Federation is destroyed."

Avon hesitated, then said, "Agreed."

"I still don't trust you."

"We've established that."

"Know this Kerr Avon, there are things to be settle between us and one day I will settle them, but that can wait too."

"Zen, record the following voiceprints, " Avon told the computer, he looked expectantly at Argus.

"Drel Argus"

"Vila Restal"

Avon instructed, "From now on you will obey their requests and commands."

The computer replied, "Confirmed."


End file.
